The Uncanny Mission
by Sea-EnigmaDare
Summary: It's based on the sequence of the game with a few changes. There are new characters and a couple of other scenes. Most importantly, it's a Clorith, Vinfa and Yuffie x ? story. Enjoy,if you don't it doesn't matter to me. Being edited
1. Lisa

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except Lisa (Enima), Naz (Grey Fox (not the Metal Gear, Grey Fox)), Jacques (Speed), Serena (Celest), Siew Mei (Lynn), Sam and Aunty Aisyah (Falcon). They belong to Square Enix/ Squaresoft.  
  
This is my first fan fic, so I hope you all enjoy.  
  
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**(Chapter one)**  
  
I was in the midst of a battle against a tough boss in the game when...  
  
"Hey Kak Lisa, aren't you done playing that Final Fantasy VII game, yet? It's late and you've been neglecting your other saved games for Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2, Kingdom Hearts and Ragnarok Online. Don't you forget that your about to hit the finish line for Final Fantasy X-2 (FFX-2) and Kingdom Hearts!" Naz, my brother, yelled from behind me. So near, and yet so far... I couldn't hear him.  
  
I was so obsessed with the game that I didn't even hear my brother call, even from close range. It was then he swiped my precious 'nanchakus' a martial arts weapon from my side on the floor. At that moment, I felt myself crash back to earth with a humongous 'BANG'!  
  
"Hey... give it back! I didn't do anything to upset you this time!" I shouted to him, nearly waking up the house. Everyone except us, were peacefully tucked in slumber land.  
  
"I'm sorry sis, but look at the time. It's late and what time we have isn't unlimited like in video games or cartoons. Besides, the day after tomorrow is your singing and ninja lessons. Ok... your ninja lessons don't start till next week, but the seminar is three hours before your singing lessons." He explained quietly not to wake up the folks.  
  
I peeked out the window, checked the time and sighed. It was 2 a.m. in the morning and I needed to rise early to get ready my voice and buck up my martial arts skill. I've been a little rusty lately and needed to improve.

Felt like a fool who had lost all hope in the world. I switched of the computer and the lights of the room and went up the flight of stairs which resembled a steep hill, said good night to Naz and closed the door to my room behind.

It was time to hit the sack. I washed my face, brushed my teeth and went to bed. It had been a long day and in seconds I was out like a light.  
  
"Where... where am I? Why is it so dark?" teary eyed, I whispered in my heart. Suddenly, a blast of light burst into the horizon, blinding me in an instant.  
  
"Agh...!" I cried as I shielded my eyes from the light. After the light dimmed, I reopened my eyes; I was shocked to see a peculiar sight. There before my eyes were a few characters from FFX, FFX-2 and Kingdom Hearts. Sora, Kairi, Squall/Leon from Kingdom Hearts,  
Wakka, Lulu, Tidus, Yuna, Rikku, Paine from FFX and FFX-2.

They looked exactly like in the video games only more realistic. Startled I screeched and backed away. They didn't seem a bit surprised at my reactions, though.

The shock didn't end there, for when I looked at myself I found myself having 20:20 vision and I was dressed in a blue adventure suit with a cape. I was my Ragnarok Online character Enima but with a few changes, with an extra powerful bow clinging on my shoulder, unlimited arrows in a case strapped on my back and carried a bag with endless space. It was as light as a feather, too.  
  
My character had long lime green hair tied in a high ponytail, chestnut eyes and moderately fair complexion. After snapping back to 'reality', Lulu spoke in a gentle and comforting voice...  
  
"I know how you feel my dear. It is rather unusual for a child of your age to 'drop in' to our world. We were expecting you as we are in need of your assistance." She faced me as I lay on the floor.  
  
"What...? I don't understand. Why would you need me, an 18 year old who cares more about video games, singing and martial arts? In fact I'm not sure why you chose Me." puzzled at the situation.  
  
Then Squall spoke, "You, of all people were the only one who showed a great deal of passion and emotion towards the characters you played as in games. We saw how upset you were when Aerith got stabbed by Sephiroth's masamune in Final Fantasy VII, and how you'd go through all odds to resurrect her for Cloud's happiness. Only a child like yourself has what it takes to make Cloud x Aerith supporters to be at peace. The Cloud and Tifa supporters may disagree as some prefer this and other's don't. Everyone has their own thoughts," seriously, but had second thoughts of what he said.  
  
"What you're saying is you want me to change the Final Fantasy VII tragedy into a fairy tale?" I said in disbelief while struggling to get up.  
  
Sora and Kairi shook their heads in agreement.  
  
Sora, in a supportive voice, said "It's been hard for you to stomach the tragic loss of Aerith in the game, hasn't it? Cheer up; you aren't the only one that grieves for her. Besides, there is an upside to her death, as a sequel was suggested and that she appeared with us and Cloud in Kingdom Hearts." as Kairi helped me up.  
  
"I understand what you mean; I was very emotional when I saw her collapse into Cloud's arms. I don't mean to be selfish, but I would even give my own life to save hers, as if she were real. I cared about her as much as if she were my sister, watching over me from far away." Tears slowly trickled from my eyes and would have really crashed if it weren't for Kairi and Lulu.  
  
"Don't cry big sister. I can see through your eyes that you'll not only be able to save her, but you'll also cause a few changes to a few characters' emotions, too." putting on her cutest smile. Warmth rushed through my veins as she said it and my self esteem leaped higher.  
  
They noticed my come back, looked at one another and nodded. "All that's left now is to equip you with special items, materia, bangles and accessories. Here take my dresspheres with you as you may need them at a point." Paine smiled mysteriously.

"Tidus and I made these especially for you. Here is an armlet that will protect you from all situations like poison and berserk and a ring that nullifies all attacks from fire to gravity attacks. You're now unstoppable." Yuna demonstrates by calling a monster which could cast small and blows flame attacks.

"Screech... Sizzle...crackles...sizzle" filled the air as the monster attacked.

Yuna just stood there as the ring shone brightly and countered it's attack by casting ice magic with a dash of lightning bolts!!!

She defeats it unharmed by the beast. I stared in awe at the site as they really meant it when they said unstoppable!!!

"We understand from what Cid told us that the monsters in FFVII are powerful and deadly." Tidus continued and patted my back.  
  
Rikku giggled as she gave me a few summoning materia. "Here are Bahamut, Ixion, Valfor, and Knights of the Round. You'll need these, too," as she placed recover, revive, time, and dark materia in my bag.

"These will come in handy during battles," she added cheekily as she bounced around. I was speechless and didn't know what to say.

Kairi sensed this emotion and giggled, "Don't worry yourself; we understand you're our big fan and play our games. We're grateful for that and we care for you as you care for us. We'll miss you and if you're in any need of assistance just call."  
  
Wakka then slapped his head gently and said, "That reminds me, here are unlimited Gil, your hand phone and a PHS.  
  
The PHS is like a hand phone but it enables you to change party members as well. If you're in a bind or unsure of anything, give us a call and we'll try our best to help you... girl." in his Jamaican accent. "...I can't thank you enough for helping me. I hope I'll see all of you again when the quest is over.

"Which part of the game are you sending me to?" I asked.  
  
"You'll see ... and good luck to you. Ah... there's your cue." Squall said as he and the rest were fading away.  
  
"My... what ... Wahhhhh..." was falling again through the darkness. "?Not again..."

* * *

That would be the end of my first chapter. Hope all of you enjoyed it and will be continually editing to make it more interesting.

Sea-EnigmaDare


	2. Where did I land?

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters or the story line of the game.  
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"Ooff... where did I land this time...? It's so soft...Like pillows." I thought.  
  
"Oh dear, are you alright? Can you hear me?" a voice calls out from the darkness.  
  
Light slowly seeps into my eyes, blinding me at first. My vision was blurred, I couldn't see clearly. Wait... I can see her now; it was Aerith helping me up. She made a fuss over me and checking every inch of my body, looking for any wounds.  
  
"I'm...I'm alright for now... and so glad to see you. I'll explain later... You're going to have another visitor falling from the roof any moment now." I said it so fast my heart could not keep up and before I realized it I was gasping for air.  
  
She looked at me strangely. Just as I predicted, Cloud came crashing through the roof landing on the flowers. Aerith rushed to his aid at once.

I watched as she woke him up and looked at him with her gentle green crystals. It was unusual to see them together in person, usually I'd watch from a TV screen but I'd prefer the real thing.

They were the characters I loved most. Cloud was a little shaken to be woken up by an angel but maintained his ego. Just then the Turks came for Aerith.

As her new bodyguard, Cloud sought to save her and we escaped through the roof. But Aerith fell when shot's were fired at us. She screamed and as she fell I jumped after her.

From below I heard Cloud say "wait" as he climbed to push the barrels from the roof. After all the goons were defeated, Aerith and climbed up after Cloud. She loved him for saving her. I tagged along behind them as we made our way to the Sector 5 slums to Aerith's house.  
  
At her house, Elmyra, Aerith's foster mother welcomed us with open arms as we had rescued Aerith. Only then, I explained whom I was but they didn't believe me. After I showed them my hand phone and a photograph which somehow got into my pocket, only then were they convinced.

In the picture I showed them was myself with bang Alvin, kak (short for kakak, means big sister in Malay) Siti, bang Jern Shern, bang (short for abang, means big brother in Malay) Logi, kak Aishath, kak Jaspreet and bang Jasdeep.

It was the picture we took the year they graduated (which was four years ago) and I was only a junior at the time. We rested a while at her house. Then we were off to the Wall Market which was beside the gate to Sector 7.

Reaching the gate to Sector 7, stopped for a rest at the playground just in front of the gate and told old stories. It seems that, even though they had just met, Aerith and Cloud were beginning to get really attached to each other, not that I was surprised.

I guess like Elmyra said, she had that effect on people. Just then, a chocobo drawn coach came through the gate and ...who was that...Tifa? Cloud stood up from his seat as Aerith and I watched the coach disappear from sight.  
  
Wasting no time at all, the three of us rushed to the Wall Market where we found out that Tifa was brought to Don Corneo's mansion and that he was looking for a bride! We asked the guard outside the mansion and he said Aerith and I could go through but Cloud stopped us as he was concerned about Aerith. As he wouldn't let her go, she told the guard we had another 'cute' friend coming along with us and Cloud was shocked to find out that it was him!  
  
It was fun trying to dress up Cloud. We went all over the Wall Market looking for accessories and beauty products for him, including the Honey Bee Inn where he had to go in himself, sadly. By the time we were done, he looked like a Princess in a blue 'fairy-like' kimono, heh, heh.

Wow, in fact we looked great, too. Aerith looked elegant in a blood red flamenco gown and I looked mature in a yellow ochre straight dress. We even did our hair, Aerith tied hers in a high ponytail, and I tied mine in half a ponytail with a headdress while Cloud's blonde wig was tied in two sweet pigtails.

"Hey Cloud, you look really nice, you should get in this get up more often," I teased him on the way back to the mansion.

"..." his face turned 3 shades of red.

Beside him Aerith couldn't help but giggle

We had to admit, if you looked at him from afar, he qualifies as a beauty queen. Back at the mansion, the guard was convinced that Cloud was a girl and let us through.  
  
He said, "Whoa, your friend is cute, too! Alright ladies, you may pass," Tifa was waiting in the basement.

When we got there, she was surprised we knew her name and what added her surprise was to find Cloud underneath all that makeup and accessories.

"Tifa, I'll explain who I am later but right now, you've got to listen to me. This Don Corneo is not to be messed with. When he means he's looking for a bride, he means it. Besides that, you're considered lucky if you aren't picked." I blasted off.

"Enima, I have a bad feeling that it may not be Tifa or me that is picked but..." she stopped when we heard footsteps approaching.

"Act like we're gossiping," Tifa suggested quickly.

A few moments later we were interrupted; the guard came for us and lined us up before the DON himself who jumped at us from behind the desk. He checked each one of us not an inch unturned.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see that the four of us were trembling underneath our skins. Wait a minute; they're not the only ones, so am I!!! I was terrified to be in the same room as a dumb pervert like Don Corneo!!!  
  
Then he made his decision, "The girl for tonight is..." drums roll... "This, sweet little beauty with exciting green shine, is the one!"  
  
"What... me... Oh... heh, heh... lucky me" I said sarcastically and stunned.  
  
I didn't think I'd be chosen as I wouldn't dream of spending a night with an overgrown pervert like him. He sent the others to his goons, Aerith to the basement, Tifa and Cloud to the main gang's room.

Before they left, I heard Aerith whisper that they'll be back for me. I glanced at them and hoped so as I was shaking like a leaf inside.

"You guys are really asking for it, touch us and you'll be sorry!" Tifa glared at them.

"Honestly, babe, what'cha gonna do, kiss us to death?" he and the other members broke into laughter.

"Let's give it to them, Tifa. They asked for it."

"Yeah, let's show them how to dance," Tifa grinned and bashed a table into a few members.

CRASH!!!! THUMP!!!! BASH!!! Whack!! be heard as the fight wore on.

"Let's get Aerith, she'll need our help," Cloud announced when the last gangster fell defeated.

They arrived only to find Aerith showing the goon a bitter end to his life by kicking him down the stairs.  
  
"We must help Enima, she's only a child and isn't used to this world." Aerith glowed with concern, clear for Tifa and Cloud to see. Cloud understood and led the way to the bed chamber.  
  
Back at Don Corneo's bed chamber...  
  
"Now, now my dear, don't be shy... come over and sit by me..." he called seductively.  
  
"Ah...Um... wait a minute, I'm just a child and ... and ..."stuttered with my words, my head was a blank and wasn't sure of how to get through this sort of situations.  
  
"What's this now, are you saying you already have a lover?!" puzzled, tension building up.  
  
"Yes... no, sort of. I'm not of this world and an alien sent here on a mission. He'll come to my rescue, I know he will." Said it so quickly I don't think he could catch the words.  
  
"Well then, what's his name, girl...?" tried to keep his cool as he repeated the question and it was plain to see he didn't pay attention to what I said.  
  
"His name ... his name is..." stuttered franticly.  
  
"Get on with it ... we haven't got all night." seeing red and let out steam.  
  
"Jacques... his name is Jacques." facing the floor.  
  
"He's not here is he? Now ... COME TO PAPA!" and jumped at me but missed me by a mile.  
  
At that moment Cloud, Aerith and Tifa stormed in still in their disguises. "Well, all you girls want to join us? Good... could use the company..." he grinned seductively.  
  
I jumped to join them. Together, we pulled of our disguises to reveal ourselves. Don Corneo was taken aback and fell backwards.

We asked a few questions and made sure he'd talk, otherwise we'd get messy.

"Ok, ok, I'll tell you everything, just don't hurt me." He pleaded.

He answered our questions, but before we could ask more, he pulled a lever and we fell through a trap door. Again we fell (well me and Cloud anyway) but this time, what waited below wasn't a flower bed.  
  
"Ugh... yuck, dumped in the sewer." I let out grimly.  
  
"At least we're safe," Cloud said while helping Aerith up.  
  
I gave Tifa a boost up the pavement without realizing the ladder beside me. Before we could get away, an Apus came out of nowhere and attacked.

"I was afraid this would happen, stand your ground!" I yelled as it got closer.

Cloud was the first to make a move.

Slash...Ching...Went his sword as he slashed the monster.

But that wasn't enough; it then set a tidal wave of sewer guck on us.

We were all weakened slightly.

"Aerith, catch and use healing wind!" I yelled as I tossed her an antidote.

She nodded her head, took the antidote and cried "Healing Wind!!!"

Everyone's hp was restored in an instant.

"Braver!!!" Cloud yelled as he leaped into the air and slashed the beast. As an accompaniment, I shot a couple of arrows.

Tifa did the honors for the big finale as she cried "Beat Rush".

He wasn't that tough, as we finished him off within a few seconds.  
  
"We need to get back to the 7th Heaven. I'm worried about Barret and Marlene. Something bad is happening I can feel it in my bones." Tifa trembled.  
  
She was really worried. I guess I had the wrong impression about her or did I?  
  
I shook my head and replied "We better hurry, then. Danger's afoot. I could hear them, don't ask me how."  
  
As I've played the game once or twice I knew the procedures and what happens around. We rushed out of the sewer and struggled through the train graveyard. It took us a while to get through the graveyard as it was swarmed with monsters.

At least we got more powerful, as we needed to be for future encounters. We arrived in the midst of a battle between AVALANCHE and The Shinra.

The situation was critical as Wedge, Biggs, Jessie had fallen and Barret was the last man standing. He was growing weaker by the minute, but his anger kept him going.

Tifa and Cloud rushed to his aid and asked Aerith and I to save Marlene from Tifa's bar. We nodded and left the scene. I found Marlene eyeing the flower Cloud had given her.  
  
"Marlene honey, we've come to take you somewhere safe. You're Papa and Tifa asked us to escort you to that place." I said to her gently.

She reluctantly left the bar with us, but that was until Aerith spoke, "My mom will take care of you and there is a magnificent garden of pretty flowers for you to play in."  
  
"I didn't know she knew of that place," I uttered to myself.  
  
"Really... Yay..!" she cheered up instantly and was singing as we made our way to Sector 5.  
  
It was strange, not many monsters stood in our way as we journeyed through the sectors.  
  
At her house, Elmyra was surprised to see Marlene and before she could ask anything I interrupted, "I'll explain later, but for now, please take care of Marlene, by the way, she loves flowers." Then we left in a hurry.  
  
We arrived in the nick of time but before we could ascend the tower, Aerith was snatched from my side by Tseng, the head of the Turks. I jumped to grab her hand but missed. I slumped on the ground about to break down, but then my hand phone rang and it was Paine on the line.  
  
"Don't cry now. If you do, you'll never catch them. Believe in yourself and use the strength within. You'll see what happens. Let your spirit soar above the clouds. Your spirit is strong, use it wisely." She said in a strict and encouraging voice.  
  
"I understand, thank you," She hung up and I felt a fire burn inside me, it gave me strength. Before I knew it, sparkling dust surrounded me. I looked down and I found that myself floating above the ground.  
  
Knowing what's supposed to be done, I took out Paine's dark knight sphere and transformed while floating in the air. I surprised them by casting darkness on the enemies.

They were surprised at first but through my voice Cloud and Tifa recognized me. The armor came in handy indeed, it not only protected me but the darkness destroyed the enemy instantly.  
  
The helicopter I couldn't catch flew towards us and Aerith spoke, "Enima take them to Marlene and don't worry about me."

"No...You can't have her!!!"

I flew up in rage to the helicopter to save her but Tseng shot at me and I lost control. I fell through the air; Aerith screamed while reaching out for me but stopped by Tseng. Tifa clasped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming,  
  
Cloud watched with his mouth open wide and Barret estimated where I fell and caught me.

"Ooff..." I watched as the helicopter flew away.  
  
"We'll have to do as she says; I'll lead the way to her house." I tried to get up but tripped back to the floor.  
  
"Better let me carry you, save your strength," said Barret as he picked me up.  
  
I wasn't used to this but it was nice of him to worry, didn't think he'd be able to take my weight after all I was wearing armor.  
  
"I know the way, I'll bring us there." Cloud concluded.  
  
The place was about to blow and we barely managed to grab onto a loose wire and swung out the gate.

KRAKOOOM!!! BOOOM!!!! The Disc Plate fell on the whole of Sector 7 and crushed all who lived there.

Barret moaned as he couldn't believe that his comrades were gone for good. AVALANCHE was no more... or was it, as Barret the leader still lived. Tifa patted him on the back and reminded him that Marlene still lived. It seemed to do the trick... for now.

We arrived at the house sooner than expected. The first request was made by Barret as he wanted to see Marlene.

Before he went up he explained to Elmyra that Marlene was his daughter and apologized to her for being such a bad father. She let him pass and when he had disappeared up the stairs, she told us Aerith's story.

Elmyra had apparently found her and her mother Ifalna one day at the train station while waiting for her husband to return from the war. Ifalna was dying of her wounds and asked Elmyra to care for Aerith and nurture her. As she had no children, Elmyra adopted Aerith. Soon news came informing her that her husband had passed away and only she and Aerith were left.

The Turks came every now and then to see Aerith not long after.

They told her that she was a special child and that they needed her. She was an Ancient, a special race who had a way to communicate with the Planet. So far she had always managed to get away, but this time she was unlucky.

We understood completely, Cloud rushed upstairs and Barret followed him down afterwards. Barret was grateful to Aerith and me, as Marlene was safe. Marlene told Cloud that Aerith asked her many questions about him.  
  
"I bet she likes you smiles" she concluded with a cute smile.  
  
"I sure hope so," Cloud replied while patting her head affectionately.  
  
Back downstairs.

"We'd better get going, if not, I fear the worst will happen to her," I shuddered.

"Yeah, we'd better, she's done so much for me and I never got to thank her," Barrett agreed in a scratchy voice.

"Then let's go, before night falls." Cloud urged us to go.

"Oh wait, rushes to Elmyra will you please take care of Marlene a little longer?" Barret asked desperately.

"Alright, but only if you promise to come back to her when it's all over," she nodded." Good Luck and stay safe!!"

"We will, but please leave this place as it's not safe," Cloud advised her as he somehow knew the fate that may befall Midgar.

As we ran, I saw Elmyra nod when I turned my head. All she could do now is hope for the best and save herself with Marlene temporarily under her wing. But what matters now is to save Aerith.

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There, second chapter edited. now 'gulp' 24 pages to go. Hope it is better than the last time.

C ya.

Sea-EnigmaDare


	3. The 'Rescue'

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters or the storyline.  
  
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We made our way to the Wall Market and heard kids talking about a wire outside the Wall Market and a few who climbed it.

"Cloud, there's a few things we need to get before we climb. I'm gonna get them now, Barret come with me," I pulled them to a halt at the weapon shop.

"Alright, but hurry." He nodded.

A few minutes later Barret and I appeared with batteries the size of guitar amplifiers and extra equipment.

"How the heck are we gonna carry all of them?" Barret asked

"Put them in here opens backpack. Don't worry about tearing it, you won't." I explained.

Cloud just shrugged and Barret just dumped everything in. Surprisingly, all disappeared into the bag.

"Ready?" I asked cheekily. All three stared with their mouths open.

The wire was how they had described it. I wasn't much of a rope climber as I failed my scout rope climbing test, so I flew up instead.  
  
But before I did so, I asked the kids who were afraid to climb, to keep a secret, "Okay kids, I'm about to do something special and I hope you don't go telling your parents about this, as I know they won't believe you. Be good now and if you're afraid to climb, so what, many people are scared of heights, including me."  
  
They nodded and I floated upwards following Tifa, Cloud and Barret. The kids rubbed their eyes and stared.

On the way up, I fitted the batteries in the respected places as I lead the three through the vines of loose wires.

"Who knew that the only way up would be so perilous," Tifa exclaimed as they climbed the last few wires.

"grunts you're telling me. Look at the kid, she's got the easy way up," Barret tilts his head in my direction.

"Hey, stop complaining, at least she's showing us the way up," Cloud shushes him.

At the end of the wires, we stumbled upon the main entrance of the Shinra building.

There were two entrances; one was the stairs where we were unlikely to run into any goons as it only stops at the 59th floor or the front door itself where we were sure to be ambushed. Decisions, decisions... which one shall we take...the long hike, or crash the party?  
  
"I don't know what you three think, but I say we split up two by two. Two through the main and two up the stairs." I suggested.  
  
"Not half bad kid, you sure know how to use strategy." Barret patted my back so hard I nearly fell forward.  
  
"Heh, heh, I went to school for 13 years. So, I did learn a thing or two about these things." I smiled back at him cheekily. Cloud and Tifa shrugged their shoulders and smiled, they were convinced that I would be of some use.  
  
"Cloud, Tifa, Barret, what I have in mind will work but I don't think you'll like it much." I explained ... "What we'll do is Barret, you and Tifa run up the stairs while I and Cloud go up main."  
  
A little uneasy with the arrangement, Tifa protested. "Why can't I go with Cloud and you go with Barret?"  
  
I gave a sigh and continued, "I know you don't like my arrangements but it'll have to do, as I need Cloud to keep a sharp eye out for ways to escape. There are also a few things I need to sort out like how not to create a ruckus, as if it does happen, the alarm will sound and more guards will be on our tail. You got me?" I told them sternly as I needed to stay focused. Didn't want mess up anything.  
  
"I guess you're right, Barret and I would cause uproar if we go in there." She reluctantly agreed turning 2 shades of red for being scolded by a kid.  
  
"Oh, before I forget, we're running out of items and that's another reason why I choose to go in main. The shop is hard to spot and I don't want to scare the counter person, too much. Forgive me; if I caused any emotions to stir, I tend to do that a lot back home." I faced the ground as I may have made Tifa a little mad and jealous.  
  
"That plan suits me fine." Barret broke the silence, Tifa nodded in agreement truthfully even though there was a slight color change in her features.  
  
I was glad, "Oh, before you go, take these with you. These are a few things to keep your strength up while climbing the stairs." I said as I passed to them two packets of 'Ribena Glucose' gummies and two 600ml bottles of '100 PLUS POWER' drinks.  
  
"I know it's an odd time to give you things from my world, but believe me it'll be hard to climb stairs without strength, I've been there before." I explained to them while sticking my tongue out childishly.  
  
They just stared at this unpredictable child and sighed. Out of reaction, Barret stretched out his good arm and ruffled my hair like a father would do a daughter which made me nearly bite my tongue.  
  
We split up and as I expected, everyone was screaming like they knew we were intruders.  
  
"Sigh I guess I have no choice but to shut them up with my sleeping powder and stun arrows." I thought to myself and fired a few arrows in every direction as we rushed to the shop.  
  
The counter person was about to scream till I told her we wanted to shop. "Doi... we won't hurt you, I'm just a kid, and what could I do?"  
  
She pointed to Cloud who was examining the area from the store window. "Oh... him, he's my big brother. He's harmless."  
  
I could see that she still wasn't convinced. Sigh... what a nutshell. While I purchased a few necessities Cloud examined the vehicles which were on show. I thanked the counter person whose teeth were chattering away like she was sitting on ice and we were on our way to the elevator.

As expected, there were guards everywhere and we had to move quickly. On the 59th floor, we reunited with Tifa and Barret who were huffing and puffing as they ran all the way up.  
  
"Kesiannya," I murmured in my mother tongue.  
  
We journeyed up using the Cardkey we found and collected more on the way up. At the 66th floor, we overheard the meeting of al, the Shinra employees in the ventilation shaft that we climbed through on the toilet.

They were discussing about such mean things like charging the Mako Energy users 15 higher for using it and about the "Neo Midgar" project where they would conquer the legendary 'Promised Land' and use up the life force. Everything was about money to them, money this, money that ... oogh it made Barret and I sick to our stomachs by just listening.  
  
When the meeting was over, we closely followed Professor Hojo to the scientific lab. There in the suspension chamber was Jenova, and not far away way Red XIII or Nanaki in the transparent tube like tank.

Cloud's heart seemed to race at the site of Jenova and fell back.

"Hey, you ok?" I asked.

"Yeah, I think so," He shook his head vigorously.

"Well, we haven't the time to worry about that. Let's hurry and save Aerith," Barret bellowed.

I rushed to Nanaki's side and put my hand on the surface of the tank. He looked so miserable and was shivering. Vaguely I heard him call out 'grandpa'; he was referring to Bugenhagen his grandfather at Cosmo Canyon.

All he wanted was to go home. My heart sank seeing he cooped up like that and somehow I felt his sorrow.  
  
"Let's hurry and save Aerith, then we can fly this coop." Barret said impatiently. Up another floor we found Aerith trapped in a similar tank to Red XIII's. Hojo was about to start an experiment which included both Aerith and Red XIII!  
  
"Aerith...!" Cloud shouted at their direction as the rest of us surrounded Hojo.  
  
Hojo was surprised as always to encounter visitors. He shouted to the control room to bring up Red XIII. He treated Aerith and Red XIII as animals, test subjects. That was cruel of him to do so. Cloud gave the signal for me and Barret to shoot at the chamber.

Dutdutdutdutdut....Chiu...chiu...filled the air other than the sound of electricity shocks.

It started to malfunction due to the bullet and lightning arrow shots.

"No... not my specimens!!!!"

Hojo screamed and wasted no time trying to save his 'specimens'. When the doors of the chamber opened, Red XIII pounced at Hojo while Cloud brought Aerith out.

Suddenly out of nowhere a huge monster and its companions, which were released by Hojo attacked us. Cloud ordered Tifa to save Aerith while the rest of us fought it.

Grrrrroooo...spleak was how it sounded like as they entered.  
  
"Concentrate on the big one; it gives life to the others." I shouted to everyone.  
  
It was quite powerful as its poison attacks weakened us.

"Braver!!!" Cloud yelled as he flew in the air.

"Heavy Shot...!" Barret cried as he shot a great ball of flame.

"Ixion...!! Valfor...!" I shouted for Yuna's Aeons to appear. "Please aid us pleaded to them."

The battle didn't take long and we were done right before Barret could reload for another 'Heavy Shot'.

Aerith and Tifa came out from hiding not long after it was defeated. I could sense jealousy in Tifa's eyes as Cloud made a huge fuss over Aerith.

* * *

(Note to readers: Later you'll understand why Cloud and Tifa have never been close. It comes later in the game.)

* * *

I just shook my head as I watched them. "We have to form two separate parties as it's easier to move around." Red XIII spoke.  
  
Everyone jumped as they had never seen a creature talk before. "Of course he can talk; his race is as special as Aerith's. They too, can sense the cries and emotions of the Planet." I explained.  
  
Everyone just stared at me, surprised I knew so much about each and every one of them. They snapped out of their awe and we split up in groups of three. Cloud, Barret and Aerith were the main party, while Tifa, Red XIII and I were the other party.  
  
"Meet you guys below," I gave a thumb up as we left Cloud's party.  
  
At the stairs, we were ambushed by Reno and other guards. However, we weren't the only ones captured. Somehow the others were, too. All of us were taken to the big cheese himself, President Shinra.  
  
"What do you want with Aerith?!" Cloud shouted. President Shinra explained again about conquering the Promised Land and the Neo Midgar project.  
  
"That girl is a sole survivor of the Ancients and I'm expecting a lot from her. We may even breed her as she may be the last of her kind." He continued with his overgrown belly bouncing up and down as he walked towards us.  
  
"You're... you're insane!!" I shouted and was about to ram the President with my head as my hands were bound. I gave a rush... CRASH!!!  
  
"Aghh... get her off" screamed the President as he fell to the floor.  
  
"You will not touch her as long as I live!" I yelled to his face.  
  
Everyone was shocked at my reactions and gasped; none of them had seen this side of me before. I was furious and couldn't hold it down any longer. Rude another one of the Turks pulled me back and literally dragged me away by my hair with the others to the dungeon.

"OW!!!" All the way to the dungeon I bawled in pain.

I was thrown in the same dungeon as Aerith, Cloud and Tifa were in the next one and right at the end was Red XIII and Barret. Aerith rushed to comfort me as I was sprawled on the floor with tears flowing from my eyes enough to fill a bucket. I had always been a sensitive person, every little thing like falling or being teased at; I'd cry or react otherwise. 

She held me and stroked my hair like an older sister would do for her younger sibling. I had to let it all out, too much pain and despair had grown inside me and I had to let flow out of me like a river. Aerith was patient with me, unlike any other person would've been. Then Cloud called from the other side asking if she was alright.  
  
"I'm fine, but Enima isn't doing too good, they must've been hard on her. After all, she's only a child. I knew that Cloud would come for me." She replied without getting up from her position.  
  
"Hey, I'm your bodyguard, it's my job." He continued.  
  
"The cost was one date, right?" She asked.  
  
"..." He didn't answer but Tifa popped a question instead.  
  
She asked if the Promised Land was real. Aerith didn't know and tended to me till I stopped crying. Everyone had different things on their minds and not long after, all of us were out like lights. About a few hours later, a powerful and deadly aura woke up Cloud and he found the door to his cell unlocked and found bloodshed outside.

He quickly woke us up by unlocking our doors and patting us on our shoulders. We went to the lab and found blood everywhere and Jenova's chamber empty. Sephiroth was here, it's obvious that he was.

Upstairs at the Presidents room, we found him and a few guards dead. From behind a pillar, Cloud and Barret found roly-poly Palmer shivering in fright.

He squealed that Sephiroth was alive and murdered the President. Palmer managed to escape their grasp and ran out to the balcony, where Vice President Rufus, the President's son arrived on a helicopter.  
  
He came to pick up Palmer, who climbed eagerly on board the helicopter.  
  
"Take Aerith somewhere safe I'll finish Rufus off!" he yelled to all of us after Rufus made a speech about the changes he'd make being the new president of Shinra.  
  
We did as we were told, but Tifa wanted to wait for Cloud.  
  
"You can't stay here alone. Red, you stay with her. The next bosses are tough but the monsters lurking around are equally strong," I told her.  
  
She nodded. Barret and I took Aerith to the elevator. The bosses were already waiting for us. Luckily I had extra lightning materia with me and equipped them to Aerith and Barret.

"They won't defeat us that easily," pulled an arrow from case. "Lightning Charge!!!"

"Bolt 2!!!" Barret bellowed as he raised his gun-arm in the air. KRAKOOM!!!

"Fire 1 !!!"

I shot a couple of lightning arrows at the machine while Barret and Aerith cast lightning, ice and fire spells. As we hit rock bottom, all the bosses were out of order. Tifa met us at the ground floor with Cloud who rode a motorcycle. Red XIII led us to a truck on display beneath the stairs.  
  
"Get on quickly, the guards will be here any minute," he called as we scrambled on the truck.  
  
Aerith took the wheel, Tifa sat beside her, Barret, Red XIII and I sat at the back of the truck. Cloud led us on a motorcycle. Shinra goons were determined to chase us on motorcycles. Seeing how many goons there were, I leapt up in the air and flew to help Cloud get rid of the riders. Red XIII stared in surprise to find out that I could fly, especially without wings.

A tank called Motor Ball glided behind us as we hit the end of the road. Aerith and the rest jumped out from the truck, I floated over to them and we fought it with all our electrifying attacks.

By the time we were done, the tank resembled nothing more than a pile of rubble. It was time to bid farewell to Midgar and journey to farther places in search of knowledge and adventure.

Again we split up, but this time for some reason, there needed to be four in each party. Of course Cloud chose Aerith, Aerith chose me and I chose Red XIII.  
  
"We'll meet up at Kalm, north east from here." Tifa informed us before we parted.  
  
"Yeah, there's a lot that needs to be explained, especially from both of you," pointing at me and Cloud.  
  
"All this secrecy and mystery is pissing me off," Barret bellowed.  
  
I rolled my eyes at his behavior and walked on with the group.  
  
"I don't think I'll be going home for a while, I hope I'll be able to get used to this life." I sighed softly.  
  
With that we set off. What lies ahead would be a new beginning for all of us, but ... why is there an eerie feeling giving me jitters?

* * *

Phew!! just a few more pages to go then I'm done editing (till after I've finished with my other fics I'll triple check on these again.).

Better get to it, but after my assignments.

Sea-EnigmaDare


	4. The journey to Junon

  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters or the storyline.

* * *

  
In no time at all, we arrived at Kalm, quite a peaceful village but they themselves use Mako Energy. At the Inn, Cloud and I told our stories. Cloud went first as his was longer.

He told of Nibelheim, how he and Sephiroth journeyed to the Mt. Nibel. To find out the happenings, what happened to Tifa and her father and what happened to the village after Sephiroth went mad.

It was quite opaque to believe him as I knew the true story. Not long after he was done, it was my turn to tell my story.  
  
"I don't think any of you would believe me if I told you, but I'll give it a shot," I was unprepared for this and stuttered every now and then. As I suspected, Barret thought I was talking crap, Tifa kept scratching her head and Red XIII just sat there on the ground saying nothing.  
  
Again I had to show the photo that I treasured so much.  
  
"Is that really you Lisa?" Tifa asked as she pointed at me in the photograph standing over Kak Jaspreet.  
  
"Yes, that's me, I'm telling the truth. That's my original form. How you see me now is the form chosen by the ones who sent me here." I explained truthfully.  
  
"Barret, I know you may think it's impossible to travel through other worlds, but if you believe that, how could you explain my existence and why do you think I'm helping all of you?" I asked him before he started bellowing again.  
  
He gave me his heated look but kept silent. "You must trust me, even though I'm not of this world, I want the same thing as all of you. I don't want this Planet to be destroyed, because if it did all would be lost."  
  
I faced the window and looked beyond it. "I agree with you, and I trust you." Red XIII said enthusiastically and came up to me stroking his head on my arm.  
  
I felt relieved and was sure that we would win against our battle with Sephiroth. Tifa nodded her head and so did everyone else. I beamed cheerfully at them. This was only the beginning of the war to save the Planet from massive destruction.

It was not a time to give in to defeat but to hope for the best. Before we left Kalm, I made preparations for everyone. I got everyone new weapons, items and materia so it would be easier to battle monsters later on.

"Whoa, kid, you sure you can afford to get us all this stuff?" Barret asked as he fastened his new gun-arm on.

"Well, yeah. You guys don't look at me that way, ok? I get that more than enough at home."

Cloud, Aerith and Red XIII just burst into laughter and accepted the stuff thankfully.

Again we parted, it was farewell but not for good. We were to meet again at Junon port. Next stop was, the Chocobo Farm where we could buy a chocobo. Sadly the ones in the pen weren't theirs so they sold us a chocobo lure materia and a few greens to help us catch a chocobo, instead. I 'talked' to a chocobo and all of them did a little dance for us.

"Wark...weakoo ...!" Was how they sounded like.  
  
When they were done, the chocobo I talked to gave me a choco/mog summoning materia. I was thrilled as it was one of the first and cutest summon materia to get.

Outside the farm, found tracks of a chocobo and followed them till a chocobo appeared. Yeeha... on the first attempt to catch a chocobo we caught one. Hmmm ... didn't think these birds could withstand all the weight it's carrying on its back. These are really magnificent and strong birds, as big as a horse but as fast as a zebra.  
  
It was smooth sailing all the way to the while riding through the marshes and not even the Midgar Zolom a huge 30 foot snake bothered us. We got of the chocobo at the entrance of the Mythril cave outside the marshes and set it free.

We were shocked at a site at the entrance of the cave. Sephiroth had left a marker to indicate that he had been through there. He staked a Midgar Zolom to show what he was capable of. It was a cruel sight and it would seem that anyone who saw it would runaway scared.  
  
Walking in the cave was creepy as it was quite dark and there were monsters lurking in every corner. At least there was a positive side to be in the cave as there were many items to pick up along the way, including a long range materia. Near the exit, guess who it was that we met...? Yes, it was the Turks. Like us, they were on a mission to find Sephiroth's whereabouts.  
  
They left us after they gave us a little lecture. "They really talk too much especially Elena and Tseng. At least Reno and Rude have manners despite their ego." I heard myself think.  
  
We climbed the vine in the cave and got out. I was exhausted, as I wasn't used to walking so far and slumped myself in front of the cave to rest.  
  
"Hey... are you ok?" Red XIII asked.  
  
"Yeah...I'm just not used to walking so far. I know I've been through police camp and all sorts of things but never journeyed this far before. I guess it'll take me a while to adjust to this world." I panted but smiled lightly.  
  
"Don't worry take your time; we don't want to push you as hard, as like you said you're new to this kind of life. We needed a break anyway. Not healthy to go on forcing yourself." Aerith patted my shoulder and kneeled by my side.  
  
Cloud and Red XIII joined us. "You'll be fine, before we know it you'll be even better than a First-Class soldier," Cloud added confidently.  
  
I knew I would and like all my friends would say, 'never give up' and 'change your attitude'. Tears didn't flood my eyes this time. Even though it was in the afternoon, when I got back on my feet it felt like I woke up early in the morning. It was all thanks to my new/ old friends for believing in me. Standing high above a hill nearby the cave was the infamous Condor Fort.

It used to be an old Shinra reactor, but right on the top was a phoenix egg and a majestic, but humongous condor was warming it. The villagers there needed to defend the condor from Shinra's attempts to retrieve the materia from the old reactor.

They needed all the help they could get. With the approval of Cloud and the others, I informed the leader that we'd be delighted to lend a hand.  
  
"Feel at home," said the old man sitting at the table in the mountain itself.  
  
"Thank you very much, sir," I thanked the man.  
  
In the highest room in the mountain, the leader was on the look out for invaders. He was glad to recruit us on such short notice.  
  
"We'll do our best to help," said Red XIII, acknowledging the situation.  
  
I donated funds and the war against Shinra and the defenses of the Condor Fort began.

"Alright, we'll need catapults, archers, repairman and all the fire power we can get." Red XIII said as I was figuring out the strategy.

"I agree, as the troops are many and we could use the artillery as well as more men." The leader exclaimed.

"Hmm, ok, in that case I'll need to get down there and fight with them as someone needs to guide them," Cloud affirmed.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere without me," I protested as well as Aerith.

"If that's the case we'll all go, and that's final," I concluded.

"I hope you know what you're all doing." The leader hoped silently.

"Don't worry, we won't let you down," I grinned cheekily.

It was a close battle, many of the men and equipment that we hired and put up fell, but in the end we were victorious.  
  
"Yeah... that will keep them out for a while." I taunted the fallen Shinra soldiers.  
  
Cloud ruffled my hair as a 'reward' for the victory. Aerith giggled at the sight while Red XIII and the village leader shook 'hands'. I must've doubted myself for all these years to realize what I was capable of. The leader's father the old man sitting at the table invited us to stay that evening.

Exhausted as we were, we accepted gratefully for their hospitality. The beds provided under the room where the old man sat were as comfy as could be. By the next morning we were refreshed and left the homeliness of the Condor Fort for Junon.

* * *

I bet all you readers are wondering why I'm putting all the settings in the pages in alternate alignments. It's nothing but another of my silly ideas to be different among the rest and well, I've been a little nuts lately.

If you would like to comment, don't hesitate, too :) .

Sea-EnigmaDare


	5. Yuffie, Junon, Costa Del Sol

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters or the storyline.  
  
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In Junon area, nearby the town, across the river was a small cave and in that cave lived an old man who rarely wakes up and when he does, he gives special items such as mythril and lightning rings. I flew across the river carrying Red XIII first and went back to get Cloud and Aerith. I haven't been able to keep count on the number of battles we've been in, but somehow in his dreams, this guy does. I went up to him and asked how many battles we've been through. Strangely enough he woke up and said to us, "You've been through 277 battles and have escaped 5 times," stirring...  
  
"And who might you be? Oh never mind here take this. I wouldn't need it. Good night." He said as he gave us the mythril before passing out again.  
  
Outside the cave I jumped for joy all of a sudden. Red XIII asked me why I was so happy.  
  
"Um... it's because with this item we could get Aerith's most powerful Limit Break, The Great Gospel." I answered excitedly.  
  
All he could do was shake his fuzzy head while Cloud and Aerith smiled and held each other's hands.  
  
Red XIII saw them like that he asked, "What are you two doing?" snickered a bit. Just like that, Cloud and Aerith let go of their grasp and said, "nothing, nothing," blushing endlessly. I laughed at the sight. Didn't think Red XIII liked to scold or tease people. Without a reason I stroked his fuzzy red head and smiled.  
  
Back on the other side of the river, we battled through the forest as a 'short cut' to get to Junon. It turned out that it didn't make any difference as it just made us more confused getting through. Right at the exit of the forest, we stumbled upon the ninja Yuffie.  
  
"I'll handle her, she's not that tough." I said to them, out of the blue. I just wanted to do something without anyone's help for once.  
  
"Don't get too confident as I won't go easy on ya." She blurted out.  
  
"Neither will I," in a half grin.  
  
She was fast, but not fast enough to dodge my water and ice arrows. I had to admit she was good, better than I was when I took karate and proved me wrong. I got bored just sending arrows, so I summon Valfor to weaken her. At last I finished her off with a few fire arrows which made her dance the hot foot bonanza, ha, ha, ha. I guess I was a little too harsh as she fainted. Cloud went up to her to see if she was ok.  
  
She recovered as quickly as she had fallen, challenging me for a rematch. "Sorry girl, but I'm not interested." I said following the procedure set.  
  
"Then I'll be off," she turned to leave.  
  
"Wait a minute." Red XIII shouted after her.  
  
She looked back saying, "so you need me badly don't you?"...  
  
"That's right." Aerith answered.  
  
"Alright I accept. I'll join you guys." She smiled sheepishly.  
  
"Let's hurry on, now." Cloud commanded and we left that area.  
  
"Wait I haven't told you my name. It's Yuffie and I'm glad to meet ya." She shouted.  
  
Just outside the forest I waited for her while Cloud, Aerith and Red XIII went on ahead.  
  
"I know your name Yuffie Kisaragi. I want to warn you not to try anything funny while traveling with us as I'll be keeping a close eye on you." I gave her a warning.  
  
She just kept quiet and followed my lead as we caught up with the others. At Junon, Cloud and Aerith were surprised that it looked so run-down. I wasn't that surprised as it didn't look half as bad as the kampungs back home in Malaysia. At the weapon shop, I was impressed with it's variation of items and armor. I purchased a few bangles and potions. Hearing the sea water below was music to my ears as I enjoy swimming whether it was a swimming pool or the sea. By the rocks was Priscilla, playing with her friend the dolphin. I rushed down the stairs with the Cloud, Red XIII and Aerith following closely behind. She was startled to see us and mistook us for Shinra personnel.  
  
Suddenly, a fearsome water monster came out of nowhere and attacked.  
  
"Get away, Mr. Dolphin!" she ran deeper into the water, but slipped and fainted underwater.  
  
"We're coming!" Cloud shouted. I carried her out of the water before joining the others in battle.  
  
The monster resembled a caterpillar crossed over with a dragon fly but extra ugly. It took a while to beat but nothing new. The girl's grandfather rushed down to the scene and told Cloud to give her mouth to mouth.  
  
Cloud was uncomfortable with the idea as Aerith and I were watching, but then I volunteered to take his place, "What am I getting myself into? Might as well do it right, remember what you read in your scout guide book." I told myself.  
  
After a few moments, Priscilla coughed. I backed away as her grandfather brought her to her room.  
  
"Bleach...I never want to do that again, no way." I thought to myself sticking out my tongue out in disgust.  
  
At least I saved Cloud from an embarrassment that he might have to face later on. Up at the town, Priscilla's grandmother invited us to stay at her house and treat it like our own as a thank you for rescuing Priscilla.  
  
I smiled back at her and said, "Been glad to help."  
  
Early next morning, it was a great surprise to find everyone gathered outside Priscilla's room. Barret and Tifa were there too.  
  
Cloud went up to check on her and when she appeared I shouted to her, "Are you alright now?" She smiled and thanked me for rescuing her.  
  
Without a word she slipped a Shiva summoning materia into my hand and said later that it will protect us from harm. I gave her a hug and she gave us a whistle to help us call her friend the dolphin.  
  
There was an easier way to get into the Shinra headquarters above the town which was by jumping on the platform beneath the airport. Everyone agreed it was a job for Cloud and much to his dismay, he reluctantly went. At the station, all the soldiers were hustling and bustling to get ready for a parade for President Rufus. A squad leader found Cloud and pushed him into the locker room thinking he was one of their soldiers. Before leaving the room he told Cloud the basics of how to march correctly, and a few other soldiers assisted him.  
  
Later they realized that they were late for the parade. Luckily there was a short cut which took them right smack in the middle of it. At this point, I underestimated Cloud as because of him the popularity meter reached sky high, better than I had done. What would I expect from an ex-soldier? Even at the part he and his squad had to perform in front of the big cheese himself, his 'squad' scored good ratings and won himself a new sword, The Force Stealer.  
  
They were dismissed and while no one was looking, he crept into the cargo hold of the ship which was going to Costa del Sol. In the ship, he managed to recognize all of us through our disguises. Aerith, Tifa and Red XIII were wearing uniforms like Cloud, while Yuffie, Barret and I were in sailor's uniform. Yuffie was sea sick and asked for a tranquilizer from Cloud. He didn't have any, but I did and tossed one to her from the opposite side from her position. Then I went up to her to take care of her. She was grateful for that.  
  
Cloud as usual stayed with Aerith till she asked him to check on Barret. Like I said before it was weird as these actions and reactions weren't there when I played the game. I guess Kairi was right about me causing changes in other character's emotions. Cloud seems as if he would never let Aerith out of his sight like he was possessive over her. Or could it be that he had fallen for her already? Nah... It couldn't be ... could it? Ai ...I'm thinking too much. Suddenly, the alarm sounded.  
  
"What was going on?" Yuffie asked me as she recovered from her motion sickness.  
  
"I'm not sure, get on my back if you're still unfit to walk; we need to get up deck." I told her.  
  
Thankfully she climbed on my back and it seemed that my bow and arrows didn't disturb her one bit. Up deck, everyone gathered in the middle of the ship. According to Cloud and Barret there was an intruder on board but none of us blew our covers.  
  
"Then it must have been Sephiroth." Cloud said angrily. To form his team, he picked me Barret and Aerith as it was Jenova birth we were up against.  
  
"You sure kiddo, isn't Jenova dead?" Red XIII asked me.  
  
"Affirmative, without a doubt Sephiroth has brought his mother with him." I answered.  
  
"Then we'd better get a move on, or we'll never know." Barret said, restlessly.  
  
"Then let's go," Cloud signaled from the stairs.  
  
Below deck, the floor stunk with the sticky smell of blood. Even though I see blood all the time, I was terrified at the sight of it, especially if it was all over the room, but kept my mouth zipped.  
  
At the engine room, Sephiroth floated upwards when stepped in after Cloud examined one of the corpses. He blurted out his plans to us about finding the Promised Land and bringing his mother Jenova along. Cloud stepped forward to try and communicate with him but Jenova-birth burst into the scene. I guess I proved Barret wrong and began the fearsome battle. I don't mean to be rude but Jenova gave me the heebie-jeebies. She was huge, powerful and down right annoying as she cast stop spells one time too often. It was difficult at first, but we beat her. It was only her arm we fought, not all of her. She left us an Ifrit summon materia before disappearing.  
  
"I guess we'd better get out of here or the captain would get suspicious." I suggested. Cloud and the rest nodded as we let ourselves out the door.  
  
Finally, after a tiresome and depressing ride, we were glad to get off the ship. Though not many agreed with the weather, it reminded me of home. The refreshing sea breezes, relaxing sun rays, nothing better to do than enjoy the scenery or hang out. First things first we needed an inn.  
  
"Go enjoy yourselves for a while, I've got business to attend to," I told all of them.  
  
They themselves thought the same way and left in the blink of an eye. Only Cloud and Aerith remained and they followed me to the main Costa del Sol Shinra villa. At the villa, I talked to the guy sleeping on the bed and said he'd sell me the Villa for 300,000 Gil.  
  
"Consider it sold, old man," teasing him.  
  
He jumped for joy and said, "You wouldn't regret this girl."... "Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not purchasing it for me but for my friend over there." I said, pointing at Cloud standing behind me.  
  
"What, are you kidding me?" he was surprised.  
  
"Nope, no joke, it's for you as you'll need a place to stay when this war is over." I explained.  
  
He was stunned, so was Aerith. In their minds they wondered how a child like me kept so much money.  
  
"It's my little secret, in case you're wondering." I smiled at them.  
  
After that was settled, we went down to the beach to find Tifa frozen in position, pointing at Hojo? What was he doing here? We walked up to him and he was as surprised as were to meet like that.  
  
He gave another lecture and excused himself. After that little episode with Hojo, Aerith wanted to be left alone. Cloud wanted to be with her, but I told him not to. Instead I asked him to get some new armor while I checked on everyone else. Red XIII was playing ball with a few kids, Barret was admiring himself in the sailor suit (Cloud was right, he did look like a bear wearing a marshmallow *giggle*), Tifa was chatting with her old friend Johnny and Yuffie took a part time job selling materia.  
  
I went back to the Costa del Sol inn to find an embarrassing site. Cloud must've come back to Aerith instead of buying the armor. He was there on the bed with her and she was crying! Her head rested on Cloud's chest while he comforted her. I wanted to go in but, it might've made matters worse so I let them be. But what would Tifa think if she saw them together? But the answer stared me in the face; it was obvious she'd be jealous. It may still be too early to tell, but it really looks like they're... in love... I rested a bit after getting the armor and other necessary items only to be woken up by a nightmare. It took a while to realize I was homesick soaked in sweat from the nightmare. I just sat there for moment thinking, and then rose to go outside. It was dark and I looked at my watch it was 3 o'clock in the morning. I guess my watch told the time in this world, too.  
  
"You're up pretty early, kid," Barret's voice made me freeze in position.  
  
Didn't see him there sleeping on the floor. "I couldn't sleep...a little homesick." I said quietly.  
  
"Well don't be, you have too much of a burden on your shoulders to be sad about little things." He got up and gave me a hug in a fatherly gesture. Something I haven't felt ever since I arrived on this twisted roller coaster ride. He may say otherwise, but indeed he was a great father figure and Marlene was lucky to have him as a dad.  
  
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	6. Naz mybrother , Gold Saucer

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters or the storyline.

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"Kak Lisa ... Kak Lisa, wakeup it's time for practice," Naz called from outside my room early that morning.

He thought my door was locked and banged the door calling my name, but no answer. He turned the door knob and found it was unlocked.

He looked in my room to find it empty, examined the bathroom, no one was there. My room was spick and span unlike me, as I always made a mess.

"Argh... where is she? Slowly burning a fuse as he always does and started hunting for me all over the house but was unsuccessful.

"Where can she be? Her bag and hand phone are missing, too." He looked at his hand phone, "Can't hurt to try," dialed my number.

It was out of order. "Weird, how can it be out of order?"

Suddenly, something shone on my bed, near the pillows. He picked it up and found it was from Wakka, it read...

" Your sister is on a mission to stop the tragedy in the Final Fantasy world, with Cloud and his friends, fighting side by side. They'll take care of her and she'll be back when it's all over. Don't fret ... man.

She won't die, as she is an immortal in our world and our heroine, whom we've been waiting for. Want to join her you say, you can but, you must show the same amount of passion she had for us or a creation and we'll pull you in.

We understand that you're worried about her, but there's nothing you can do to help being in different worlds.

One word of caution, though. Don't reveal her absence to anyone as if you do, she'll be stuck here forever and all her hard work will be wasted.

If you're really close to her, we'll know through your actions when you read this letter. Believe in her for now, she'll need it more than ever now. She chose this path, let her follow it. Hope you understand,

Wakka …"

Naz squeezed the letter in his hand. He had mixed emotions now, of jealousy, anger and concern.

"Oh man, how come you always get all the fun," and walked off to continue his greatest creation, a character named Grey Fox with his adventures.

"Huh...! I cried out loud suddenly.

"What's wrong," asked Red XIII.

"Um nothing... I thought I heard someone call my name." I answered, scratching my head.

"Maybe you're hallucinating, you didn't get that much sleep last night," Barrett continued as he patted my shoulder.

"Yeah maybe your right," I gave in to him.

We packed our bags and left the inn. As there was no other route to follow, we took the long way to the North Corel village, Barrett's old hometown.

On the way there, we had pass through a reactor which resembled Midgar, which the Shinra had built and an old railroad. Upon our arrival at the village, we were received coldly as the villagers blamed Barrett for what happened to their village, years ago.

Barrett tried to argue but couldn't as they didn't want to hear him out and he kept feeling sorry for himself.

I went up to him to comfort him but he said instead that he was fine. West of the village was a rope train going up to the Gold Saucer a sort of theme park, owned by Dio, a heavy weight champion.

It had various chutes leading to various excitements and activities, which were, battle square, wonder square, chocobo square, event square, ghost square, Round square and the main square, station square.

Aerith got all excited and asked Cloud if we could go on rides. Tifa scolded her as it wasn't the right time for that sort of talk, but Aerith was prepared for her. Barrett threw a tantrum and went off.

I wanted to follow but Yuffie held me back. I guess it is time to get our minds of these things.

"Cloud let's all go have fun, might as well do as we'll need the GP for later on. If we don't get it now, it will be harder to get later." I advised them.

Yuffie and Red XIII agreed immediately, while Cloud, Aerith and Tifa gave it some thought.

"Oh yeah, before I forget, you'll have to pick two of us to be in your party, don't ask me why, I just know these things." as I scratched my head.

Ok, it wasn't my choice, but Cloud chose Aerith, and instead of me they chose Yuffie who declined the offer.

"You two have fun and I'm sure you'll need Enima with you as she would come in handy," she said grinning sheepishly.

That was unusual coming from her. Didn't think she could talk that way.

They looked at one another and sighed, "I guess you're stuck with us."

Aerith giggled and held out her hand. After that was settled, we jumped in the wonder square chute. At the end of the tunnel, Cait Sith, a robot cat on a moogle asked if he could read our fortunes as he served a purpose as a fortune telling machine.

"We don't have time for it now," Cloud declined.

"Are you sure? I can find missing items or people and tell the future," he didn't give up.

"Alright, tell us where Sephiroth is." Cloud asked.

"You won't regret this," started to walk on the spot.

Ting, ting, out came the prediction, it read "May your life be active and your favorite color is blue."

"Is this some kind of joke?" Cloud nearly lost his patience.

"Must be a glitch in the system, I'll try again." He started walking again, only faster.

Ding, ding, out came another card.

This time it read, "What you pursue will be yours, but you will lose something dear,"

"What does it mean?" Aerith asked,

"There's more," Cloud said and continued, "But till an angel calms your fears, beware, your doom may be near."

"Creepy, I've never gotten anything like this before. I'm going with you." He shivered.

"Why...?" Cloud asked.

"It's very disturbing and I'll feel uneasy if I don't know the results of it. Nothing you say will stop me." He replied.

Cloud sighed ... "Well, let's get going, there's a lot of games to play and GP to be won, fun time!" I cried from behind Aerith.

Aerith giggled, Cait Sith gave a salute and Cloud just shook his head. There were many games to choose from, and my favorite was the 3D-Battler, as I managed to beat all the levels. By the end of the day, we had quite a haul. We gathered so much GP till it went over the 10000 GP limit.

"Why don't we check out the gondola?" Cait Sith suggested.

"Yeah, let's go Cloud, Aerith. It'll be fun." I continued, jumping up and down.

The atmosphere really brought out the kid in me. Cloud scratched his head and looked at Aerith, who smiled back at him.

The ticket lady gave Cloud a ticket for 3 GP, and said the gondola was meant to carry only two passengers. Before he could open his mouth to decide who to bring, I pushed Aerith towards him till she fell in his arms.

"Hey... Liisaaaaa!" she scolded me.

I thought I saw a flash of red brighten on their faces, maybe I was a little too over the edge. Hopefully not, as these two lovebirds were meant for each other from the start.

"Honestly, I don't think it was a good idea to choose you after all," Cloud pouted while Aerith glared at me slightly.

Though they scolded me for doing that, they didn't seem to mind being together hand in hand.

While Cait Sith and I waited, I noticed the chute only lead back to the station and nowhere else. The two were back in half an hour as the gondola showed them all over the Gold Saucer without missing any details.

Out they came, and looked as though they played the part of Sakura and Syoaran from the Card Captor Sakura Movie: Enchanted Cards.

Through their eyes, I knew what went on in their heads but chose not to interfere. Next we played on the Shooting coaster at the speed square. It resembled a normal roller coaster but had an extra special adjustment, which was to shoot all the targets that appeared.

"That's a fun ride I assure you," Cait Sith said, as he noticed my knees were knocking as I had a fear of certain roller coasters, especially fast ones that go upside down.

"Don't worry, have fun don't think about the pressure it has on you." Aerith said and smiled. That sure got me on the shooting coaster but, strapped in the seat I began to shiver again.

The ride wasn't bad as I thought it would be and I really enjoyed eliminating the moving targets. When it was over, I went to the gift counter to find that our score had beaten the high score and the man behind the counter gave us some accessories and Aerith's umbrella, an unusual weapon, but trustworthy.

Suddenly, there were screams coming from one of the squares.

"The battle square, that's our stop." I called out.

Arrived at the scene to find blood carpeting the floor and bodies sprawled everywhere.

"Who could have done this?" Aerith's mouth clasped her mouth.

Cloud heard a mumble from one of the bodies which went, "Man ... with... gun... on... arm... cough"

"It couldn't be him, it just can't." Cloud backed away in disgust and gritted his teeth.

Out of nowhere, Dio and his men ambushed us. Tried to explain, but he wouldn't hear us out.

"Seize them and throw them to the prison." Dio commanded.

The next thing we knew, all four of us were thrown down a chute and landed in Corel Prison, but unconscious.

"Where are we?" Cloud asked, rubbing his head.

"At Corel Prison, where there's no escape for prisoners as the area is surrounded with quick sand." Cait Sith, explained.

"Let's look for Barrett; he'll know what this all about." Aerith spoke, as I helped her up.

"I'll bring you to him but don't expect him to be glad to see us." I warned them.

His house wasn't far away from Mr. Coate's caravan. The house was in ruins, and looked as if it were to collapse. Not a moment too soon, Barrett appeared and pointed his gun arm at us!

"Duck...!" I shouted over the gunshots. Ka...Plump ... something fell behind us.

It was a punk about to mug us, but Barrett got him first, He saved us.

"Now could you please explain what's going on, Barrett?" Cloud asked, straight forwardly.

"Yeah, tell us, you can trust us. We saw you rush in here and followed." Tifa called, as she, Yuffie, and Red XIII rushed into the room.

Barrett sighed and began telling the tale that he kept hidden in his heart all these years.

He and his best friend Dyne were on the way back from visiting the reactor, an old villager ran up to them shouting that the village was being destroyed. It gave them a shock when they saw smoke and flames in a distant.

Before the old man could dodge, he was shot by Scarlet. They ran the other, but Dyne slipped and fell in the cavern and Barrett caught him. But a shot from Scarlet's rifle caused him to loose his grasp of Dyne's hand and he fell.

It seems Barrett wasn't the only one to have a gun arm implanted and his arm, because Dyne whom survived the fall had the same operation. No matter what, Barrett wanted to handle the situation on his own.

* * *

Ok... Phew... just a few more chapters to go till I've really finished editing this whole story :p . Hope it's easier to read now :). 


	7. No can do

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters or the storyline.  
  
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"No can do, Barret, we won't let you do this alone, as all of us are part of it," I patted his arm.  
  
He looked around the room and saw everyone nodding. He lifted his head, and it lit up almost immediately. Cloud seeing this he started picking whom to bring along with Barret. Aerith and Red XIII were picked, but soon I found after they were gone, I could see through their eyes, (well Red XIII's and Aerith's).  
  
Didn't think I could do it but it was unusual. They found Dyne in a junk yard grieving over the loss of hi wife and daughter Marlene. Yes, he was Marlene's original father, Barret found her at the village after the Shinra goons left. How did she survive, a mere baby, nobody knew. Barret and Dyne fought like cats and dogs, but Dyne gave in to his best friend. Told him to take care of Marlene and give her the locket of his late wife. Before he could catch him, Dyne committed suicide. Barret howled like an injured animal and banged the ground.  
  
Diamonds fell from my eyes, as I watched. They arrived back in the evening, and Barret needed a chat with Mr. Coates about busting out. The only way was to take part in the chocobo race and win. It was a job for Cloud but I wanted to give it a shot. The others either shook their heads or shrugged their shoulders at my overwhelming attitude. Nothing could seem to hold me down. Ester was our manager and taught us the basics of racing. Seems to me it was like riding a really fast ostrich, but its build was as stable as a horse. It was fun at first but when it neared the finish line the pressure ascended to my head. When all had past the finish line, I found the chocobo I rode was tossing me up and down nearly throwing me over board. I won the race, on my first ride. Everyone congratulated me and Ester passed a letter from Dio to Cloud. He apologized for the misunderstanding and to make up for it, gave us a buggy.  
  
With the help of the buggy, it was a cinch crossing the shallow parts of rivers. Before going to the next spot, I flew to the blacksmith's house bearing the mythril we got form the old man from the cave. The blacksmith was overjoyed when I gave him the mythril as he was running out of minerals and metals to forge weapons.  
  
"You could choose items from either the big or small box." He said thankfully.  
  
"Ok, thank you. I was glad to be of service to you." I smiled childishly.  
  
I chose the small box which contained Aerith's final limit break, Great Gospel. The sight of it made me shiver as this meant the end was near. I scratched my head, thanked the blacksmith and left. While the others journeyed to Gongaga town, I flew back to the North Corel town and went to the Gold Saucer. Without anyone there to help me, I went through the battle square and battled at least 10 times, without getting tired and all the losses that the cast on me had no effect. I was amazed at myself, didn't think I'd last 80 battles (not to mention in record time of half an hour, though it didn't feel like I had gone for 80 battles). I managed to win Cloud's final limit break along with other great things like a champion belt and potions. Used up the extra GP that I had as the GP we collected before was 200 GP higher than the limit so at least I used it wisely.  
  
All the competitor wanabes stared open mouthed at me as they didn't think a girl would last going through the battle square more than twice.  
  
"... Sigh..." I left the Gold Saucer and flew to Gongaga to find Cloud and the rest already at the town.  
  
I saw Tifa and Aerith standing on opposite sides of the town. I stumbled upon Cloud, who rushed out the door of Zack's parent's house, made me go in a spin when he pushed me out of the way to check on Aerith. He chose to be jealous when Aerith explained who Zack was. I went to Tifa, she talked as if she and Zack were lovers, but she only met him a few years back when he arrived at Nibelheim with Sephiroth. I scratched my head once more, blinked and left her there. I noticed Cloud didn't rush to her as he did Aerith but instead went with Aerith on a walk. That's strange, usually he'd go to both, never mind, it must be really fate that they'll be together. Tifa on the other hand stared at them jealously; it was plain to see that she had feelings for Cloud.  
  
Rolling my eyes, I murmured to myself, "Where were you Tifa, years ago when he wanted to be your friend?"  
  
She wasn't even close to Cloud when she was younger (will reveal later on). Wandered through the shops again, dad was right all along, I'm a very spendthrift girl. The variety of merchandise wasn't great but, worth purchasing. I managed to get some handy materia and other useful equipment.  
  
"Lisa, where's our next destination?" Cloud called from outside the materia shop.  
  
"It's your hometown, Nibelheim, across the river." I returned the call, while exiting the shop.  
  
Cloud froze. Nibelheim had burned to a crisp 5 to 7years ago. That was what he believed. Didn't want to scare him, but what to do, he asked for the next stop. On the road, he was mute till we reached Nibelheim. It was still standing; even Tifa turned as white as a sheet to see all the houses were like she remembered. Why it was still there, no one knew. All the villagers were hush, hush. The stories they told didn't seem to ring bells in anyone's head. They were hiding something, but wouldn't blurt it out. No matter, at the Shinra there still was a surprise waiting for us. We crept up the creaky floor boards of the stairs and into a room with a safe. There was a combination needed to open it.  
  
"The combination is, Right 36, Left 10, Right 59 and Right 97." I said in order.  
  
They just stared at me, while Cloud clicked the knob turning it following the combination. It clicked open. There was a rumble, all of us crashed to the floor. Before us was the monster called the Lost Number? That's a very farfetched name.  
  
"Hit it with all your might; be careful when it turns blue!" I shouted for all to hear.  
  
We used many summon spells and limit breaks. Luckily it never got to turn blue, but maintained its half red and blue figure and sometimes turned red. It put up a fierce fight but, it lost dramatically. Not used to using so much power, I panted hard  
  
. "Time to get Vincent from the basement," I said, quietly as sticky beads trickled from my forehead.  
  
I took the key from the safe and led everyone to Vincent's chamber. He slumbered in a room with coffins, his BED was a coffin. Cloud knocked the coffin with the sealed lid. From in side, Vincent threw off the lid and swooped up into the air like Count Dracula. I ran and hid behind Aerith, I was terrified of him even though he was to be our comrade. His first impression scared me out of my skin. Cloud talked to him till he stumbled on an issue about Sephiroth and Lucrecia, Sephiroth's real mother.  
  
After that, He asked us to leave. Cloud knocked again and this time, he explained that he was a former Turk, but Professor Hojo experimented on him and made him look the way he was now. He wanted to be left alone after that, saying he was sinned. In the Laboratory, next to the room, we found Sephiroth lingering amongst the books. Cloud approached him. Sephiroth lectured about his plan to conquer the Promised Land again and flew off knocking Cloud out of the way with a materia. I picked up the materia, and helped Cloud to his feet.  
  
Aerith comforted him as I spoke up, "We have to get moving, there's another person we have to pick up, not far from here."  
  
They were mute, then nodded. As we made our way back to the staircase through the freaky underground corridor, Vincent swooped down out of nowhere saying he wants to join us. Cloud agreed and he joined the team. Though he is our compadre, he still gives me the heebie-jeebies.  
  
Getting past Mt. Nibel wasn't a problem, but getting past the materia keeper a spider like monster was. It was immune to fire attacks and the problem was most of our materia were fire based. I shot many combos of arrows, including lightning, poison and ice, even transformed using Paine's warrior dress sphere. Aerith was our healer during the fight and cast gravity attacks on the monster. Cloud slashed away, every now and then used his limit break Climb Hazard. Red XIII was busy casting summon spells which weren't fire based. Finally, after twenty minutes of fighting, it kicked the bucket.  
  
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	8. Rocket Town

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters or the storyline.  
  
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Rocket town, was just around the corner form the exit of Mt. Nibel. It was a peaceful village, and the Rocket in the background. I shopped around for a while as everyone else did their own things. Cloud, Aerith and Red XIII went on a walk. Tifa, Vincent and Barret were admiring the Rocket. I could have sworn I saw an evil look on Tifa's face and she was clinging onto Vincent's shoulder. Was that a blush on Vincent's face?  
  
I shook my head hard and looked again. Guess not. I joined an old man looking at the Rocket. For my troubles he gave me a 'Yoshiyuki' sword, which is meant for Cloud. I thanked him, as I was admiring the sword and heading to where I last saw the lovebirds, BOOOM I bumped into someone and we both fell backwards to the ground.  
  
"Watch where you were going next time," he said angrily.  
  
"Sorry, I was looking for my friends." I said apologetically.  
  
I looked at him; hey... his features looked familiar. "What's your name, stranger, can it by any chance be Grey Fox." I asked  
  
. He was taken aback. "How'd you know my ... Kak Lisa?" He stared, surprised.  
  
"Yeah, lil' bro ... What are you doing here?" I asked with my eyes open wide.  
  
"Wakka told me that you were on a mission and I got jealous. After I went to sleep, I found myself face to face with Wakka, Lulu, Kairi, Sora, Tidus, Yuna, Rikku and Paine. They said they saw how much passion I had for my Grey Fox character and brought me here to help you." He explained.  
  
"Well I'm sure you'll make a big impression on the ladies looking like that." I giggled, teased him.  
  
"Very funny, kak, like you'll make a great impression for guys." He reflected back at me.  
  
"I don't intend to, little brother." I was ready for that.  
  
He rolled his eyeballs and said, "I'm working for Cid, Wakka sent me here as he knew you'd be passing here soon. A little sooner than I expected. Cid and Shera were pleased to have me work for them. I guess my costume was enough to boost their motivation, especially Cid's." he explained.  
  
"I'll go meet him now, I know where he is." I turned towards the rocket and sped off.  
  
I found him there in the rocket making adjustments and doing a spot check. I asked him about outer space and the rocket. He touched a subject where he found my brother and knew he could learn about outer space from him.  
  
"I know you couldn't care less about who this guy you picked up is, but it is quite important for you to know that he is my younger brother. I know that you're anxious to know what President Rufus has to say about the Space program, but please don't see him today. That's all I could tell you right now." I said enigmatically.  
  
He was silent for a while, and then started swearing till my ears nearly went deaf listening to him. Back in the town I gathered everyone including my brother to Shera's house. There she filled us in about everything form A- Z. At the end, who would bash into the room? Cid. He made a scene and walked out the door to the Tiny Bronco slamming the door behind him.  
  
Chee... what's biting him? Shera made us some tea and said, "Make yourselves at home; we'll be having a visit from the Shinra so..."  
  
Creak... booosh, the door flew open and roly-poly Palmer burst in. The first thing he noticed was the tea and asked for some with the works (lots of sugar honey and lard). No wonder he was so fat. Cid zoomed out the door to meet President Rufus as soon as Palmer walked in, made Yuffie spin like a top as she was in his way.  
  
"Argh ...ulp..." She rushed to the bathroom and vomited...yuck.  
  
My brother and I were busy making preparations for the next trip when Shera summoned all of us to the kitchen.  
  
"You want to borrow the Tiny Bronco, right? Well you better hurry as I believe Palmer is about to take it."  
  
True enough Palmer had started the engine and was giving us no choice but to take it by force. He called for security. It came and instead of helping him, it knocked him out of the scene.  
  
"Jump on," Cloud shouted.  
  
The Tiny Bronco flew through the air around the town. It amazed us as a little plane like this could support our weight. We scooped up Cid from the ground, but it caused us to be an easy shot for the Shinra soldiers.  
  
"Hang on guys, she's going down ...!" Naz screamed.  
  
SPLASH... we crashed in the sea. "My dreams ... all ruined first outer space now the sky. Will I ever fly?" Cid said while facing the water.  
  
"At least it can be used as a boat," Cloud tried to cheer him up.  
  
He just grumbled and said we could do what ever we want with it.  
  
"Well I guess I'm joining ya numbskulls as I've given up on Shinra and that town." He half grumbled.  
  
I stood up. "I'm sorry, I know it's a bad time to say this, but everyone, meet my younger brother, Naz or Grey Fox." I announced, embarrassed as it WAS a bad time.  
  
No one was in the mood, but tried their best to welcome him 'cheerfully'. I faced the water and sat down beside Red XIII, who put a paw on my shoulder as a sign of "don't fret."  
  
Suddenly, SPLASH... Tifa fell overboard! Wasted no time, I dived in and searched the waters for her as she sank into the depths of freezing water. Gotcha ... I grabbed her hand and headed for the surface. Naz helped her aboard and then me.  
  
"Kak Lisa, look at your feet!" Naz cried out of the blue. All eyes were locked on me. "...?" as I looked at myself.  
  
"Yipes...!" where my feet were was a sparkling sapphire tail and red tube top bathing suit.  
  
No wonder everyone looked at me strangely. As soon as my tail got out of the water, I was human again. Tifa was unconscious when we helped her aboard. Aerith went up to her and held her hand while Vincent, the nearest one to her gave her CPR. She stirred right away, the first person she saw was Vincent and in the corner of her eye saw me and Aerith with my hair soaking wet. She thanked me for saving her and Aerith for her concern. I fetched a towel for her to dry herself off. Vincent sat beside her, wrapped an arm around her shoulder to warm her.  
  
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	9. Wutai

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters or the storyline.  
  
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From my seat, I noticed a flash of red in both their faces. Smiled to myself and Red nudged my hair.  
  
"That's new, how did that come up?"  
  
Land ho... I heard Yuffie shout. There was a shoreline just up ahead. Cid beached the Tiny Bronco at the shoreline. We have just arrived at Wutai, Yuffie's sad hometown. Where we beached the plane was on the other side of the canyon. To get to the town we had to hike.  
  
"Lisa, how old is your brother," Yuffie suddenly came up to me.  
  
"He's about your age, dear." I answered patting her head.  
  
She looked glad for some reason. Not even half way to Wutai, Yuffie jumped in front of us.  
  
"What's up Yuffie?" Naz asked, tilted his head in confusement.  
  
She just kept quiet and ran off. Out of nowhere, two Shinra goons appeared. We fought and won.  
  
"I knew I realized something, my materia's gone." Aerith cried.  
  
Luckily Naz and I were prepared for this. At Rocket Town, we replicated all the materia and made extras for times such as this. We hid them carefully, camouflaged in our bags. Yuffie only took the materia we equipped as there were many of us. Gratefully, everyone took and equipped the materia that we supplied. All worked splendidly.  
  
"Now, let's get Yuffie." Cloud led the way.  
  
Fighting monsters along the way, we sped to Wutai. Saw Yuffie and chased her all over the village and back to the Turtle's Paradise Inn.  
  
"Alright, I'll give you back your materia." She confessed, without noticing the materia I equipped on everyone and led us back to her house.  
  
At the house, she led us downstairs in her operating room. She told us that we had to pull the switch to get the materia.  
  
I whispered to Naz, "Get everyone away from the center of the room. You remember what she did in the game." He nodded and signaled for everyone to hug the walls instead.  
  
I pulled one of the switches and a cage crashed down in center of the room. I pulled it again and it went up again.  
  
"The jig is up, Yuffie, hand over the materia." I grinned at Yuffie from the other end of the room.  
  
She panicked, and before we knew it, ninja stars and shurikens flew at us by the dozen.  
  
"Duck ... hold your ground!" Cloud yelled.  
  
All of us ducked in time but Naz was hit! "Naz..." I screamed as I rushed to him and helped unfasten his helmet. A shuriken had damaged the main circuits and the helmet had to be removed. "Gasp...!" Naz took in the air, panting. Yuffie stopped her jumping and locked her eyes on my brother's face. Her heart skipped a beat, but snapped out of it and scrambled out the door.  
  
"I'm fine Kak Lisa, you don't have to make a fuss over me, go get her before she gets away," he shrugged me to go.  
  
Red offered to carry him on his back, but as arrogant and stubborn as I remembered, he declined the offer. He's trying to hard to be a tough guy. I shook my head and asked Red to accompany him while we looked for her. Near the five-storey pagoda, I rang the bell to reveal the hidden door.  
  
"Don Corneo, you overgrown pervert, unhand them at once." I shouted angrily at him, when we saw that he had captured the Turk, Elena and Yuffie.  
  
After all this time, he's still looking for a bride, like he has nothing better to do. It so happens that the Shinra are interested in getting him as well, for he had spilled the beans on them before. He really makes me burn a fuse as I can't stand men like him. He managed to escape us. We 'joined' forces with Reno and Rude as they wanted to save Elena as much as we wanted to save Yuffie. The trail led to the Danchao Statues outside town. We split up till we ambushed Don Corneo. But before the Turks arrived, the Don set his pet Rapus, on us. Rapus was a flying terror; it looked like a dragon only smaller and skinnier. We gave it all we got, and got rid of him just like that. The Turks finally arrived and finished Don Corneo off. Not long after, back at Yuffie's, she returned all our materia and only then she realized we had extras and asked for some.  
  
"You can but you'll have to promise not to steal again, same goes to your father, Godo." I was strict with her.  
  
She faced the floor and twitched suddenly facing the door to her basement. Naz had emerged with Red but still had his helmet off. Yuffie blushed when she saw him and all of us in turn stared at the two. They were the youngest in the group, and would lookout for each other.  
  
"It's time for you to conquer the pagoda, Yuffie, they're waiting for you." I patted her on the shoulder.  
  
She nodded and followed us to the pagoda. We were amazed at her strength as she conquered three floors of the pagoda in record time. She was exhausted at the end of the third fight. Barret carried her back to Godo's house for her to rest. I stayed with her till she fell asleep and when I left, Naz took the second shift. The next morning, I checked the room to find Naz asleep and Yuffie was missing! We searched everywhere for her, except the pagoda. Naz and I rushed over to find Staniv beaten and a commotion going on the top floor. Yuffie was in the midst of a battle with Godo! BAM! Both fell to the floor panting. She had won! I helped her up and the whole party marched in. Godo was proud of his daughter and asked to speak with her privately. All went down except me, but kept out of sight. Godo expects Yuffie to take our materia when the war is over. I flew in the room unexpectedly and scolded them both. They gave in and I left the room with Yuffie. Before we left, Godo presented her with the Leviathan summon materia.  
  
"Now we have to head back to the Gold Saucer to get the Keystone from Dio and for the main event, the date scene." I murmured in my head.  
  
Who will Cloud pick and who will date who? All will happen at the Gold Saucer. As we left Wutai, monsters and enemies poured at us like rain.  
  
"Naz, let's give it to 'em," I signaled to him.  
  
He understood and we cleared a path for us to get through, but half-way more crashed in. We used our limit breaks, Naz used his favorite "Flying Death" where his sickle flew in the sky with a deadly glow, spun like a top and slashed every monster in sight to bits. "Elemental Spring...!" I yelled as an orange aura surrounded me and let go arrows by the dozen, elemental based, fire, earth, and water combined as one. All the arrows showered the monsters as they caved in on us. The coast was clear, we made a run for the Tiny Bronco but we had to pass the canopy bridges. Barret and Red XIII used Stardust Ray and Satellite Beam as diversions to throw of the enemies.  
  
"Finally, we made it ... shove off captain," Tifa panted. Cid started the engine and we were off.  
  
"Oh, there's someone I need to pick up." I murmured under my breath.  
  
I whispered to Naz, who wasn't keen on flying to accompany me. I took out an invisible jet pack and strapped it on him.  
  
"We'll meet you at the Rope station, got to pick up someone as it's a special night, tonight," I vaguely explained trying my best not to embarrass myself again. Cloud shrugged his shoulders and I steadied Naz as we floated upwards.  
  
Sparkling dust surrounded me once more and within a few seconds we vanished.  
  
"They can fly?!! Why the ^@#% didn't anyone tell me?!!" he yelled and nearly falling overboard. Everyone other than Red, Cloud and Aerith stared in awe at the sight. "No one asked," Red answered calmly.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- 


	10. Jacques

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters or the storyline.  
  
***************************************************************************  
  
2 a.m. in the morning in the real world, Jacques was getting ready for bed. He was exhausted from the pressure of his college days. His examination ended and all he has to do now is rest and relax.  
  
"Yawn... finally can get some real sleep," he yawned.  
  
He looked at his watch and then his hand phone, "Lisa hasn't called me for a while, I wonder why? Is she mad at me? ... Can't be," he wondered as there weren't any new calls or messages from me.  
  
He decided to give me a ring and dialed the number. It was out of order.  
  
"That's weird, how could she change her number without informing me? Maybe I'm just dreaming. I'll try again first thing when I wake up." he was concerned about me.  
  
*Click* the light was switched off and he was already in dreamland.  
  
"Hey man, wake up." Wakka's voice called.  
  
Jacques got up from the floor, startled being woken up by strange characters. He didn't recognize any of them as he never played any games from Squaresoft or Square Enix. Lulu wasted no time and went straight to business.  
  
"We believe that you're acquainted with our heroine and have chosen you and a few others to assist her on her mission. You know her by the name of Lisa, but in our world she is known as Enima." She didn't miss any detail.  
  
"Whoa, whoa, you mean she's in trouble? How, when, why?" he asked, stunned and surprised.  
  
"In a way she is, but not in the way you mean. She's lonely for companionship." Tidus continued.  
  
"Before we continue farther, let us introduce ourselves, I'm Yuna, he is Tidus, Mr. Wake up call is Wakka, the blonde girl over there is Rikku ..."  
  
"I'm Paine, that guy over there looking serious is Squall, and the kids are Sora and Kairi." Paine connected the dots.  
  
"You care for her, don't you; it's in your eyes. We've equipped you with items, equipment, armor, special abilities and new form. Take a look, what do you think." Kairi said as she held up a mirror.  
  
He looked handsome in light swordsman armor with an invincible sword and whip strapped on a belt around his waist. His hair shone a deep sea green and his eyes were a lovely shade of purple. They even replaced some of his bulkiness with muscles.  
  
"Ooh lookin' good dude." Rikku gave him thumbs up.  
  
Speechless and concerned, his eyes trailed the floor. Jacques was the first guy to be my best friend ever since I was a child. Lastly, Wakka and Lulu gave him unlimited Gil like he did me and my brother, a PHS, some materia, his hand phone and a bag to carry them all in.  
  
"Before you go to the designated destination, here's a tutorial just for you. Our world is the Final Fantasy world, Gil is the money we use and materia is a crystal that enables a person to use magic. Certain materia has its own attributes and abilities. Red ones enable us to call upon creatures to assist us in battle, yellow ones give us extra qualities like deathblow and double cut, purple ones help as lures , green ones are used to cast magic and grey ones help to control the green materia. The rest you'll learn along the way." Squall explained.  
  
"Oh and another thing, the bag will enable your every wish except certain desires and as you're strangers to our world you and our heroine are immortals." Sora added. "Understood," Jacques gave thumbs up and was ready to rumble.  
  
******************************************************  
  
"Shera ..." I called melodiously from out side her door.  
  
She was surprised to find me at her doorstep and invited me in. I declined the offer and on the spot I revealed our identities to her. Naz explained the main reason why we wanted to see her.  
  
She jumped at the idea and shivered, "You won't drop me, right?"  
  
"Nah, I won't. I'm pretty strong and experienced with flying." I assured her.  
  
Naz nodded and I picked her up gently. In the air, she gasped and clung to my suit. I nodded my head and signaled Naz to prepare for landing. The guy in charge of the tram rubbed his eyes over and over again when he saw us swoop down from the air and asked if we really flew. I answered and giggled at his reaction. Moments later, Cloud and party arrived. Cid was the first to notice Shera and again went ballistic. Everyone tried to reason with him but no sere. Only Shera managed to calm the raging dragon. It was a strange sight; she just reached out for him and held him close. Aww... and I thought Cid couldn't stand her. Go figure. Up the tram we went and I purchased Gold Tickets for everyone but Naz and Yuffie. Naz insisted that he bought his own ticket and for Yuffie. We spread out and did what we wanted. Followed Cloud and Aerith to the gondola and waited for them on a bench nearby, looking down below. I didn't realize the stranger sitting beside me, till he spoke.  
  
"Isn't it a drag waiting for your friends alone?" he asked. "Yeah it is, but I don't really let it bother me." I answered, and then I twitched.  
  
"What's your name stranger, I'm Enima?" I held out my hand and he took it.  
  
"I'm Speed, pleased to meet you... Guess I've found you ...Lisa." "Jacques... oh my god, it's you, what are you doing here?" I asked as I jumped into his open arms.  
  
"Wakka, a friend of yours summoned me saying that you're in trouble. Now here I am in the form they chose and with you. I really missed you." He stroked my hair gently.  
  
"Didn't think I'd find you here and I missed you, too." I snuggled up to him resting my head on his shoulder. Cloud and Aerith emerged from the gondola and saw us together. Cloud smiled at Aerith and cleared his throat.  
  
Snapped out of the romantic scene, scratched my head and introduced them. Aerith giggled and Cloud welcomed him aboard. The battle dome was where we gathered as we needed to entertain Dio to get the keystone of the Temple of the Ancients. The challenge was to beat as many monsters as we could to satisfy his thirst for amusement. Cloud called us in a huddle and asked for any volunteers.  
  
Two were needed than the usual single. I rose up my arm and Jacques followed. The others were amazed at me and Naz grumbled. Even though, Naz, Jacques and I had similar accessories and skills, I couldn't let Naz go in as he would go with Yuffie. Naz may not suffer, but she will.  
  
"Splendid, splendid, shall we begin?" he gestured.  
  
I swooshed my fist as a sign that we were ready. The battle arena was no larger than three quarter of soccer field. It had to be as some the monsters which appeared were humongous. It was a breeze, defeating the monsters as we weren't affected by the flaws used at the battle arena. It may be cheating, but we can't help not being from this topsy-turvy world. Successfully, we walked out of the arena with top battle points and Dio was impressed. As a token of appreciation, he gave us the keystone we've been yearning for. But I wasn't done yet. We needed to get the W-summon materia. Dio was amazed at my character, so was Barret. After all this time, they never saw how much spunk I had. I was on a roll.  
  
"Well little lady, you've earned my respect." Barret patted my head.  
  
"Gee, thanks, Barret." I smiled childishly.  
  
"And don't call me Barret, call me 'dad'," he snickered.  
  
Ok... I guess that isn't so bad. All pitched in, including Aerith who amazingly survived all eight battles without getting wiped out.  
  
(After three hours)  
  
"Total Battle points = 666666" the ticket girl announced, "And here's your prize, the W-Summon materia." She passed the W-Summon to Cloud who held it up in triumph, while Barret carried me on his shoulder like he did Marlene.  
  
"Hope I'm not too heavy," I felt a little embarrassed but glad, as I've never been on a person's shoulder before.  
  
Night approached, and it was Enchantment Night tonight. A special night as we only experience it once in the game. Yuffie was overreacting as it was her first night on a date with someone. She pestered me to show her how to dress, how she should act and what not. I giggled at her and pulled out Paine's Lady Luck dress sphere.  
  
"Hold it up, Yuffie," and shouted dress change.  
  
She transformed, "Wow, it looks awesome," she blushed.  
  
I told her to be herself and not to worry. She jumped into a hug on me and zoomed like a F1 car out of the room to Naz. He wore his new outfit, a Chinese traditional suit with a red dragon on the back, and wasn't wearing his helmet.  
  
"Looking good little brother," I smiled, gave him a thumb up and got ready.  
  
Only Cloud, Vincent and Aerith didn't dress up as they weren't keen to. I managed to dab some powder and glitter on Aerith before she combed her hair and went to see Cloud. Tifa wore the outfit she used when we were at Don Corneo's mansion, why the dress up, it beats me. She asked to use some of my makeup and I asked her to help herself.  
  
"Thank you, I'll only need these," she took the maroon lipstick and the foundation powder.  
  
Is that all, of the load my aunt gave for my birthday, that was all? Very unpredictable, half expected her to take some blush and the glittering blue eye shadow.  
  
"Need help?" I asked.  
  
"No, but thanks anyway, sweetie." She smiled and closed the door of the bathroom.  
  
I shook my head and took out Paine's trainer dress sphere and transformed. Flurry, Paine's lovable and magnificent bird, didn't mind me a bit even though I wasn't her original mistress.  
  
"Ok, girl, I'll be out for a while. Stay with Cait Sith and Red XIII, they'll take care of you. Be good," I said as I stroked her gently under her neck.  
  
She understood and rubbed her little head on my neck (hi, hi, that tickled).  
  
Red XIII called from the other end of the room, "Have a good time," And in the next room, Cait Sith was snoozing and for a robot cat, he could snore even louder than Barret.  
  
Jacques greeted me at the door, right after I put on my favorite lip gloss. He was stunned at my appearance as I was at his.  
  
"Didn't think a tomboy like you would take the time to dress up," he teased.  
  
"Well I didn't half expect you to look like you're ready for a valentine social," I teased him back.  
  
He wore an indigo T-shirt underneath and on top he wore shirt with neon colored blue tiger on it.  
  
"Shall we go?" he offered to escort me out of the room like a gentleman.  
  
I giggled and went with the flow. First stop was the event square, a popular spot for couples. We sat at the very front row and were in time for the show. As they were the 100th couple, Cloud and Aerith played the main leads in the show. I applauded as soon I saw them on stage. Cloud played as a knight who was to save the Princess Rosa, Aerith from the evil clutches of the Evil Dragon King, Valvados. He became a magic user and asked for the weak points of the E.D.K. He kneeled before Aerith, when she and Valvados appeared, and kissed her hand.  
  
I glanced around and saw Naz with Yuffie, who was cuddling up to him, and smiled. Not far away, a familiar face appeared at the corner of my eye; Tifa was sitting with Vincent and were smooching? I blinked and shook my, to double check if my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. Nope, it was real. After the show was over someone patted me on the back. It was Barret with Myrna, his wife whom I brought to life for a night, something like a Cinderella movie, out of permission from Wakka and Lulu.  
  
"I don't know how to thank you for reuniting me with Myrna, even though it's for only one night," he gave me a hug and Myrna pecked me on the cheek.  
  
"My pleasure, as you've done so much for me," Smiled back at them.  
  
Next, we stopped by the Chocobo square where we bumped into Cid and Shera who were betting on the chocobo races. They looked happy, which was a strange turn from Cid as he was nicer to her now. She had it in her all along. "Want to go ride on the gondola, Lisa?" Jacques asked suddenly.  
  
"Why not," I answered following his lead.  
  
At the station, Yuffie and Naz were there waiting.  
  
"Lisa, could I go on the gondola with Naz." She asked shyly.  
  
"Of course you can, you didn't have to ask." I replied.  
  
Maybe she wasn't sure or Naz asked her to ask me. She jumped at me again and Naz asked the ticket girl for two tickets.  
  
"Take care of her, bro." I cried out to him from the station.  
  
"Do you still want to go on? Or would you rather sit there, where we found each other?" I asked.  
  
"Yeah, let's go." He got the tickets and we were off.  
  
It was a spectacular site. The view from the shooting coaster, the live scene of the chocobo races and the fireworks made the place even look more beautiful.  
  
"What do you think of the view?" I asked him.  
  
"Almost perfect," he said. He didn't tell me why until the ride was over.  
  
"Let's rest a while," he said as he pulled me to the bench.  
  
"Are you ok? You're acting pretty weird," I asked, startled.  
  
No reply, but instead he removed a few strands of loose hair from my face and kissed me tenderly. I was surprised at first, but accepted it and wrapped my hands around his neck. He let go as soon as he heard Cloud and Aerith's voice. Didn't think it would take them that long to get out of the event square. They went on the gondola like we did.  
  
I couldn't help but see what they did on it. It was as if a television screen had appeared in my mind. Aerith was admiring the sites as Cloud watched her. She was lovely; he was handsome, nothing like a ride on the gondola to soften a tough guy's heart like Cloud's. Soon, the dialogue in the game appeared. Aerith said she wanted to meet Cloud and that she saw Zack again in Cloud. Cloud was puzzled as he was with her. But what she meant was that she wanted to be in a relationship with him. He must have understood as the next thing I saw was that he leaned in, lifted her chin, stared deeply into her eyes and kissed her passionately. I blushed and snapped out of the vision. Jacques noticed this and tightened his hold over me.  
  
I was glad, but at the same time worried as her end was near and I didn't want any sadness in his heart as he loved her. Jacques again saw me shiver and lifted my head closer for another kiss, longer this time until he didn't realize we had an audience. Cloud and Aerith had emerged from the gondola hand in hand. Both turned tomato red and it took only a sneeze from the ticket girl at the booth to startle us.  
  
"Eep..." I was embarrassed to see them there, so was Jacques.  
  
"Uh... we uh..." Jacques couldn't think of what to say.  
  
Cloud and Aerith gave a little laugh and told us not to worry.  
  
"Let's get back to the inn, it's late." Cloud informed us.  
  
"And we have to be up bright and early tomorrow," Aerith continued.  
  
I nodded and followed them from behind with Jacques.  
  
At the station square, Cait Sith was sneaking around and had stolen the keystone we worked so hard to get!  
  
"Hey, Cait Sith what are you up, to?" Cloud shouted.  
  
Realizing that he was found out he put up a high speed chase. Cloud and Aerith went after him at the speed square and the wonder square.  
  
"I know his next stop, come on," I shouted to Jacques as I jumped down the chocobo square tube.  
  
We were just in time, Cait Sith had just led them into the building. I went head on to try stopping him but he pushed me forcefully out of the way till I crashed on the stairs.  
  
"Lisa!" all three shouted in unison.  
  
Aerith helped lift me up while Cloud and Jacques charged at him as he threw the keystone to Tseng on the helicopter. The cat was out of the bag, Cait Sith was Reeve, a Shinra spy and personnel. He confessed and said he was disturbed with our way of life, fighting for others for nothing. Made sure we listened when he pulled out a walkie-talkie.  
  
"Marlene!" Aerith and I cried.  
  
Reeve or Cait Sith didn't want to use such drastic measures, but it was the only way we'd listen.  
  
"About the temple of the Ancients, I know where it is," he continued.  
  
"So do I, don't say it's impossible," I shouted, struggling to get up.  
  
"Oh I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hit you that hard." He rushed towards me and Aerith, who pulled me away.  
  
"Let's get back to the Inn and treat it as if it never happened." He informed us and left.  
  
We were worried, not just about Marlene, but Elmyra, too. At the Inn, Flurry was fast asleep beside Red XIII. I transformed back and she disappeared. Naz and Yuffie snored away in the room. I removed my stuff which I had left there and returned to my room, only to find Tifa and Vincent still smooching on the bed. Shera and Cid were there too, chatting. Ok, it was occupied. Checked Barret's room, both Barret and Cait Sith were snoring so loudly that I thought I felt the floor rumble. Guess not this room either.  
  
I went to Aerith's room next. Luckily the occupants weren't asleep. Cloud had moved in as Shera had left the room and that Aerith was all alone. Jacques was there, too.  
  
His excuse was, "I couldn't stand the noise Barret made whilst he slept." he poked his ear.  
  
My excuse was my room was conquered by Cid and Vincent who were 'busy' with Shera and Tifa. We laughed at each other's stories and got ready for bed. Even though they were in the same room, Cloud kissed Aerith good night and I gave Jacques a hug. He hugged me back and went to bed.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------- 


	11. The Black Materia

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters or the scenes in the games.

* * *

Early thenext morning, who would come in the room and give me a wake up call...Yuffie... She was really hyper as she couldn't wait to tell me how her night was. I told her to wait outside as I got ready. Looked around the room and saw an adorable site. Jacques looked adorable the way he slept and Cloud and Aerith slept in each other's arms?

Ai... I guess none of us could do anything to separate them. I pecked Jacques's forehead and luckily he didn't stir but tossed the other way. Out side Yuffie gave back the dress sphere and shot right out. She told me that she had a romantic night with my brother. On the gondola, he hugged and kissed her.

They went over the edge when playing the games at the wonder square and gambled like crazy at the chocobo square. I laughed at her story. She made a sour face and asked what was funny. I just chuckled and as I found her rather cute.

Her actions portrayed that she had a crush on my brother. It was plain to see, and I'm sure Naz felt the same way. But there was a problem… What will we do when we have to leave? I don't mind her going out with my brother, but she isn't of our world and it will cause them both pain to part them.

"Lisa... heelllooo..." Yuffie waved a hand in front of me.

"Oh...I'm sorry Yuffie. I was thinking about something." My eyes swept the floor.

"It's ok, besides, he's calling you." she pointed behind me.

Jacques waved to us and the love birds emerged from the room, packed and ready to roll. Gathered downstairs, Cloud devised the teams. Roll call, Cloud... Aerith...Tifa... Barrett...Vincent... Yuffie... Cid... Red XIII... Cait sith... Naz...Jacques...Enima. So far there were 12 of us. Cloud concluded that there would be 3 teams.

The main team consists of Cloud, Aerith, Jacques and I. the second team was Tifa, Vincent, Naz and Yuffie. The last team consisted of Cid, Barrett, Red XIII and Cait Sith.

"Ok, we'll meet you at the Temple of the Ancients," Cloud concluded when Naz and I left to send Shera back to Rocket Town.

But Cid called us to wait and walked towards Shera. She stroked his face and wished us luck. He pulled her into a hug and apologized for being so nasty to her all that time. Shera blushed slightly and looked up at him. I was about to break them up but didn't have the heart.

Naz tapped Cid's shoulder and said, "Come on lover boy, we have business to attend to."

He let go of her reluctantly, and she kissed his cheek before we lift off. For the first time, we saw him blush and waved franticly to us.

Back at her house, Shera gave us some materia, which she bought especially for us to use. No words escaped my gaping mouth as I was speechless.

She did all this for us,

"You didn't have to do this, really I can't accept gifts I didn't deserve," She put a hand on top of mine and stared deep into my chestnut eyes, then to my brother's jade green ones.

"It's the least I could do for you, as you have done wonders for me," Through her eyes I understood what she meant and bowed before her.

"It was our pleasure to bring him to his senses. Oh, take these, he will love them and this to remember us by, if we don't see each other again," I took out two solar powered jet packs, which only recharge in the day, and a bracelet I carried for a long time but never used. After a last hug, we departed and set off to the Temple of the Ancients.

Reuniting with our assigned teams, we approached the temple. Upon arrival, Aerith kneeled before the entrance like she could understand what they were saying. Cloud stood by her till she jumped up and rushed to investigate.

Inside the temple was Tseng whom was severely wounded and murmured that Sephiroth had attacked him. As proof, that he didn't want any trouble, he returned the keystone to us. Reluctantly, we accepted his gesture, but even so, he was still a Turk and should not be trusted.

We placed the key at the altar and waited for what was to happen next. Like sinking in quiche sand, we were pulled through the floor. The floor was smooth beneath our feet and as we took in the environment, we stared in awe.

The temple was enormous as well as magnificent. The structure was strong and yet ancient like its namesake. There were temple keepers all around, who put us through a high speed chase as we barely caught up with them.

As they have been cooped up in the temple for centuries, they had lost the ability to speak. But was it possible that they had lived there for centuries? Even so, Aerith was able to communicate with them. They themselves were ancients but stayed behind while the others moved on.

There were many temple keepers whom we needed to chase, till we reached the room with murals on the walls, where we encountered Sephiroth which caused Cloud to lose himself.

"SLAP…!"Jacques slapped his face hard. It worked, he was back.

Aerith reached out to him, he held her close. She was frightened that he'll go mad and he didn't want to lose her either. The walls told the story of the Planet and that disaster will strike.

It showed that a meteor would come and destroy the Planet and only the Ancients and Holy could stop it.

The black materia turned out to be a weapon of mass destruction and was transformed into the temple so none could retrieve it without risking their lives. The PHS rang and Jacques answered.

It was Cait Sith on the line. He had overheard our conversation about the temple it self being the black materia, and announced that he was willing to sacrifice that body of his as it was a toy.

The real guy was at Shinra head quarters controlling him and that there were many other Cait Sith bodies, he explained. Aerith thought the idea was suicidal as he was sacrificing himself for our sake. The ones on the other side of the PHS with Cait Sith understood his plan but were just as shocked.

A fair decision it was, but toy or not, he was our friend and cannot be replaced.

"Meet me at the exit." He said before he hung up.

There was one problem, as soon as he hung up, a red dragon appeared. It was big, fiery and ruby red. Like most dragons it breathed out fire and was weak against water. For protection, Aerith immediately cast 'Planet Protector' on all of us. Among us, we had Leviathan and the Aqualung enemy skill.

"Tidal Wave...!" Jacques yelled as the material glowed in his hand.

"Aqua lung...!" Aerith shouted ... as the monster groaned in pain ... weakening with every attack.

As a Grand Finale...Cloud used Meteor Rain with a dash of storm arrows backing it up.

With a last cry of pain, the dragon fell dead at our feet and dematerialized into thin air.

As a parting gift, it left the ever so handy Bahamut materia.

Before I forget, there were a few treasures to pick up and the bridge at the time keeper had already stopped at 6 o'clock.

Ai... I leaped to the respected entrances and retrieved the treasures which included Aerith's most powerful weapon, the Princess Guard.

"Aerith, you may find this weapon rather useful, " I beamed at her as she stared at it thoughtfully.

It was after all her greatest weapon of all and only she could use it . Once that was over, we hastily made our way to the main exit.

At the exit, the door wouldn't budge. I rammed in to it a few times and it still wouldn't give. Just then an eerie sound filled the air, looked up and saw the head and hands of the hell's wall (a monster which looks like an alien and is part of a wall with the head and hands sticking out), Very creepy.

It seemed to have no weakness like the usually monsters we beat. Not to worry, all the practice we had paid off. The level of strength each of us had was up to critical mass. Not even Jenova would be able to defeat us. With the new Bahamut materia equipped, it gave a boost of power on our side. We gave it a meal that it wouldn't forget.

First on themenu was...

"Elemental Spring...!" I yelled as my arrows flew like darts at the beast.

"Mega Flare!" called Cloud.

Jacques used multiple limit breaks and attacks on it till it wailed bitterly.

Aerith cast all sorts of magic from ice to lightning spells which finished off the monster for good with a huge BOOM!

At last the door flew open and the whole crew flowed in. Cait Sith said he was going to complete the puzzle at that moment, but before he did he asked everyone if anyone had any last questions. Aerith clapped her hands together and asked him to read their fortunes.

Each of us had a turn. I just so happened, Aerith and Cloud had asked how compatible they were. The answer made Tifa a little jealous, but as soon Vincent wrapped his arms around her, she chilled.

Cloud and Aerith were perfectly matched and their stars showed a bright future. It may have been a coincidence, but Vincent's and Tifa's were highly compatible as well, so he said. He asked the rest of us if we wanted to know the future, but we passed the offer.

Instead I gave him a hug which made him look like a cherry on an ice-cream, Naz and Yuffie carried him and their shoulders, Cid patted him on the shoulder, Jacques and Barrett shook his hand.

As he walked out of the room, in unison we shouted to him, "Be strong."

We waited outside the perimeter and watched as I the temple shrunk smaller and smaller. Within 10 minutes it was no bigger than an ordinary materia.

Cloud rushed down to retrieve it, but I couldn't trust him with it. I dived in the pit and grabbed hold of the materia.

Aerith followed behind me as I retrieved it. Through my eyes I told my reasons off my behavior and she understood.

Again, those two love birds couldn't hide it and wrapped their arms around each other. I kept the materia in my bag, and watched the two about to kiss again, at a time like this. Jacques swooped down and joined me below.

Suddenly, an evil aura filled the air and a dark cloud revealed an evil presence. Sephiroth had appeared to steal the black materia!

"Aaaaagggghhhhh...!" Cloud screamed and rushed towards me.

He thrust me to the ground and snatched the black materia from my bag. Jacques ran in front of him thinking he would stop, but he was pushed aside forcefully.

I cried after Cloud, but he was engulfed in a trance. Too late, Sephiroth had the materia now and he left Cloud in a very bad state.

Aerith went up to Cloud but he slapped her.

"No!" I shouted and rushed to her aid.

I grabbed his over raging hands and with all my might threw him off. Even so, he came at us in hot pursuit, I was ready. Barrett leaped from above and knocked him out. Aerith revived as quickly as she fell and held Cloud tenderly in her arms not wanting to let him go.

* * *

Phew... finally managed to edit it. hopefully it is more exciting to read and hope you all enjoy it :). 


	12. The Forgotten City

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters or the storylines.  
  
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(Back in Gongaga)  
  
Jacques, Tifa and I stayed with him as he lay in the bed. Aerith waited outside room. She wanted to be there with him but knew that only she could stop the meteor. Aerith walked in the room. She looked at us, then to Cloud and leaned to kiss him for what seemed to be the last.  
  
"Aerith..." I looked at her face, she didn't want to leave, but had to. He reached out for her as she disappeared from sight. Wanted to follow, but I froze in position. Jacques and Tifa held me down.  
  
I fainted in disbelief that she left. The two shook me to and fro to wake me but no luck. Jacques lifted me up and cradled me in his arms. Even though my eyes were shut, my mind wandered. From a distance I saw visions. One of them included the one Aerith sent to Cloud. Telepathically Aerith had said goodbye to her loved one.  
  
It was sad to see him that way, she ran through the Sleeping Forest with Sephiroth on her tail. He tried to follow, but his feet ran on the spot. I wanted so much to warn him but something pulled me back. I awoke in the arms of my best friend. He must've been really worried to have used the prince charming trick on me. Tifa clasped her arms on her mouth, trying to hold back herself from hugging me. He had really good timing as, Cloud awakened as soon as I got up. Tifa pounced on him saying that Aerith had left.  
  
He shivered, and lost all confidence in himself. Barret barged in the room and tried to knock some sense into him.  
  
I called to him, "Don't be hard on him, dad. He's had it rough." Barret grumbled but understood.  
  
We left the room, so he could think; Jacques carried me out like a groom carrying a bride. Didn't think I was able to walk after the little incident. It took Cloud a while as he didn't know what to do. But he knew if he just sat there, doing nothing, he would never see his beloved again.  
  
Out side, we waited and he emerged from the hut. For some reason he seemed distant and gloomy.  
  
"I'm sorry to have worried all of you, but please would you help me save Aerith?" He asked sincerely.  
  
I patted his shoulder and answered sympathetically, "You don't have to ask, we've been here with you all the way," He looked at us sadly.  
  
"She's right you know, we're your comrades through thick and thin." Vincent broke the silence. Jacques, Cid and Barret gave him a thumb up, while the others grinned at him.  
  
"Let's go save her, lover boy," I teased him. The others laughed and he chinned up.  
  
On board the Tiny Bronco, he was like a ghost as he didn't speak with any of us. Naz and Yuffie were chatting away, Cid was piloting the plane with Cait Sith, Tifa was with Vincent, Jacques kept a bird's eye view and I sat with Red XIII. Couldn't help thinking about how Cloud feels for Aerith and that her end may be near. Red placed his furry head on my lap, asking me to stroke it.  
  
He knew I was drowned in thought and wanted me to get over it. That was why I liked him so much; he's very bright and understanding. No matter what happened or where we were, he and Aerith were always there for me. But Aerith was on the edge of a cliff right now and I myself am wondering what we should do. Red lifted his head and rubbed it against me. He may be a beast, but amongst friends he's as harmless as a puppy *giggle*.  
  
The Forgotten City was across the sea and situated beyond the Bone Village, an excavation site. The head of the search said we needed the Lunar Harp to get through the Sleeping Forest. If it awakens a path will appear before us leading us out on the other side. Naz, the expert at locating items, he lead the excavation and show the assigned workers where to dig.  
  
By the next morning, we had the Lunar Harp in our possession. The trail to the Forgotten City was magical like it had once been under water. Corals, shells and clams where everywhere. Even some of the monsters resembled sea horses. The uniqueness and beauty of the city was breath taking. Being an amateur scuba diver, I fell in love with the place immediately. It was said it used to belong to the Cetra. Before we hit the sack, we investigated the city for survivors and knowledge. The homes we stayed in were shells and were quite cozy. It was then I decided to stay up while the others slept. Cloud was going to wake in the middle of the night and I'm going to find out why.  
  
As I expected, even though I had Jacques snoozing on my lap, I could see him wake from his slumber.  
  
"You can hear her calling you, can't you?" I called quietly. He jumped and the others woke.  
  
"Her voice rang loud and clear; I'm going to follow it." He announced.  
  
"You're not going... not alone," Jacques murmured.  
  
"We won't let you." Yuffie continued.  
  
He looked at us again and led us to a big shell surrounded by a lake. In the shell, the fish which had been in the middle had vanished and a crystal stair took its place. It was a spiral stair and led to a meeting place. It had an altar and in the middle was Aerith! She was serene and beautiful. Tifa, Red and I wanted to get her but Cloud stopped us. He himself went to meet her. I wasn't letting him stop me, I followed him and the others watched. He was intrigued by her serenity.  
  
But something was wrong; something inside him was forcing him to kill her, "Cloud, stop." Everyone shouted.  
  
He snapped out of his trance and looked at his love. From above, Sephiroth swooped down with his murasame. He was about to murder her! I pushed Cloud aside and stood before the blade. "NO!!!" Jacques, Naz and Yuffie shouted at once.  
  
"Heh, heh, heh, you missed her," I grinned at him.  
  
But he laughed pointing behind me. The tip of the blade managed to slice through her back. "NO...!" I shouted tugging the blade with him holding it and swung him from side to side.  
  
Surprised that I wasn't dead, he gawked at me and tried his best to hold on. As I did so, Cloud removed the blade from Aerith's back and cradled her gently.  
  
*Sob...* I heard it from behind me as I spun Sephiroth. "Cloud...?" I whispered.  
  
He was sobbing with Aerith wiping away the tears. I slid of the blade bearing the pain and threw Sephiroth and his blade like I hit a home run. All gathered around them. Yuffie and Tifa themselves couldn't stand the sight of their friend's near death and hid their faces in their hands. In a flash, he was back for more. He just wouldn't give up.  
  
Still holding Aerith, Cloud spoke, "This can't be real, Aerith," gently rocking her.  
  
Sephiroth started bellowing and said that she'll soon be one with the Life Stream and all that was left was to go to the Promised Land in the north.  
  
Cloud yelled, "SHUT UP... the cycle of nature and your stupid plan don't mean a thing."  
  
Red XIII whispered in despair, "Cloud...?"  
  
"Aerith is gone. Aerith will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry...or get angry... What about US... What are WE supposed to do?" lowered his head to her chest.  
  
"What is this pain?" lowered her gently to the ground  
  
"My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!" He trembles continuously.  
  
Sephiroth looks confusingly at him, "What are you saying? Are you telling me you have feelings now?"  
  
Furiously Cloud shouts at him, "Of Course! What do you think I am!?"  
  
Sephiroth guffaws, "Ha...ha...ha...Stop acting as if you're sad. And there's no need to act as if you're angry either."  
  
He floats in the air, with us staring in awe, "Because Cloud, you are ..." BAM!!! Jenova appears taking us by surprise and Sephiroth floats away.  
  
Naz, Yuffie, Jacques and Vincent drew up their arms and lead the attack. I brought Aerith below and joined them. Everyone pitched in the fight, like the time In, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship if the Ring, when Frodo and his friends were attacked by Orcs, nobody left the battle ground.  
  
She was at the edge of defeat when she continued Sephiroth's words, "Because, you're...a puppet." Then she shattered to a million pieces and vanished.  
  
"I'm... a puppet?" Cloud repeated confused.  
  
Our attention returned to Aerith. She was still breathing but was standing on the edge of a cliff. Cloud cradled her fragile body while we watched the two lover's last moments.  
  
The last words she said to him were, "I love you," and in tears Cloud kissed her their last kiss.  
  
All of us grieved at the sight. It was too much to see a faithful friend fall before our eyes. Tifa tried her hardest to hide her tears, Yuffie cried on Naz's shoulder while he patted her on the back, Cid and Vincent looked away, Barret hung his head low, Cait Sith and Red XIII howled sadly while I had tears streaming from my eyes with my right hand clenched.  
  
Out of the blue, an idea hit my head like a ton of bricks. It was risky, but like dad always said, 'you'll never know till you try,'  
  
"Cloud ... I have an idea to save her, but I'm not certain whether it would work." He looked at me solemnly with tears trickling like rain from his eyes.  
  
"Well what is it?" Barret asked impatiently.  
  
"Naz ... remember the time Jean Grey from the X-men died and the phoenix helped by reviving her with a small portion of the other X-men's lives?" I asked with my heart beating as fast as a dynamo.  
  
"Yes... why?" he answered.  
  
We telepathically exchanged thoughts and he nodded.  
  
"But how are we going to do it? We don't have the phoenix materia, yet?" he asked.  
  
"Didn't I say we'll use a similar method, and that it would be risky?" I answered, showing my finger at him.  
  
Naz followed what I said and asked everyone to gather in a circle around Aerith's lifeless body. I placed a life materia which was at level 3, the master level, beside her. Holding hands, I chanted something in Arabic over and over (actually the words I chanted was just revive.).  
  
Everyone had to concentrate and sealed their eyes. As I chanted, the materia floated in the air and a blue flame burned deep inside it. The flame grew bigger and brighter with every chant. Soon it was humongous and sprouted like a fountain. Many fire tentacles stabbed us through taking a portion of each of our own lives and patching it together as one. The pain was unbearable and shocking but it wasn't for long. The flame now, brilliant amber, floated down to Aerith and she glowed like a gem.  
  
The light surrounding her was blinding and we struggled to keep our grasp. When it ended, we saw her body float back to the ground. Before it fell, Cloud let go of my brother's and Vincent's hand and cradled her. She didn't move. The thought of my idea was unsuccessful was painful and I broke down and cried. Barret shielded me from the crowd and looked at Cloud. Cloud didn't know what to say or do. Subconsciously, he tilted his head and kissed her passionately with a single tear falling from his face to hers.  
  
To Red XIII's and Yuffie's surprise (they were facing them at the time) her hand moved towards Cloud's face. He noticed too as her lips moved as he kissed her. He parted and her emerald eyes gleamed at him. Tifa jumped for joy at her recovery, Vincent smiled warmly and carried Tifa into the air, and Cid lifted his head and grinned while Yuffie jumped on Naz. She even kissed him as she was so glad and hyper (luckily none saw him blush). Everyone was overjoyed to see her. Barret patted me on the shoulder lightly and pointed to Cloud's direction. I was still in tears when I walked up to her. She gave me a hug and said thank you.  
  
"Glad to have you back, Kak Aerith," I replied. She didn't understand what "Kakak" meant but she liked the sound of it anyway. Even though the materia helped most of the time, prince charming had awakened the sleeping beauty.  
  
(End of chapter one)  
  
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	13. Hey, I'm freezing

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters or the story line.  
  
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(Chapter 2)  
  
My wish came true, Aerith was alive and not only Cloud was glad, everyone was. It was still dark outside but to us, it seemed like a dawn of a new day. Only now, I felt loss of strength and needed to crash. Again I fainted to the floor, but this time it was Barret who caught me.  
  
"Kak Lisa, wake up," Naz shook me, but I was too tired to answer.  
  
"She used up too much of her strength," Barret explained to him.  
  
Naz faced the floor as he forgot the risk that had to be made. The risk was I had to use up 70% of my power and strength for the spell to work or to face the forever loss of Aerith.  
  
He whispered and grinned slightly, "Typical, kakak Lisa."  
  
Then when everyone understood the situation, all of us made our way to the shells and crashed for the night. I didn't wake up for two whole days and it was Cloud, Jacques and Aerith who stayed by my side till I awoke. I was surprised to see Cloud and Aerith fast asleep in each others arms by my bedside and Jacques's head not far from me.  
  
Touched I was, seeing them here with me and stroked Jacques's hair gently as he lay there. He awoke and was glad to see me awake. Lifted me up and carried me out the door to the other shell for everyone to see. It was embarrassing the way he did that but, he couldn't help being happy, could he? Barret ruffled my hair, Vincent and Tifa hugged me till I nearly ran out of breath, Naz and Yuffie jumped on me causing me to fall to the ground, and Cid gave me a great pat on the back. Ouch, that smarts. Cloud and Aerith looked from outside and laughed at the scene.  
  
We had a little celebration before continuing the journey. The party was held in the area of the two shells. There wasn't any music but the beauty of the Forgotten City played its own song. None other could match its beauty or uniqueness. We could stay here forever but we knew there was still Sephiroth to find. Everyone had a good time and it was like back at the Gold Saucer during the date scene. Aerith and Yuffie were chatting with Tifa and me while the guys had a little boy talk.  
  
There was a dance and of course the main couples were together and the unlucky had to make due with what they had ...*chuckle*.  
  
That night, Squall called my hand phone, "Lisa, all of you have to be extra careful on the journey. I heard Kujah and Evil Ansem from FF IX and Kingdom Hearts have joined forces with Sephiroth. We're not so sure how they found out about each other but like I said 'be careful'. And we have a few surprises set for you and your friends. Good night." He said and hung up  
  
. "Great," I thought, doubled trouble. As usual, Jacques slept on my lap while I slept on the floor with my back to the wall. Barret and Cid shared a bunk and were fighting over the blanket all night. Vincent lay on a bed not far from them with Red XIII below. Tifa slept on the chair in the far end of the shell and the two love birds slept beside me and Jacques on the floor but Aerith's head was rested on my shoulder.  
  
The next morning, we set out north to the icy fields. We jumped the spines of a huge shell outside the Forgotten City to the cave with steep walls. It looked easy as pie climbing up the walls but we were fooled by its appearance, as it was scary. A few miles away, was the outpost called The Icicle Lodge. It was a funny name for a place. This was where Professor Gast interviewed Ifalna, Aerith's mother about the life of Ancients/ Cetra. Time passed they fell in love and wed. Since then he fell out with the Shinra and with Ifalna and their daughter Aerith, they hid there till one day. The Shinra found them and took Ifalna and Aerith away. For trying to stop them, the Shinra killed Professor Gast.  
  
"Professor Gast was my father?" Aerith asked unbelieving the fact that one of the people involved in the Jenova project was her dad. She kneeled on the floor of the house. We had watched every video that was recorded in the house, none of us believed what we saw. It was a great impact for Aerith, I knew, but she had to know. Again she wanted to be left alone. Naz and Tifa escorted everyone out while I closed the door.  
  
"Better not bother her, Cloud. Wouldn't want her to go mad like Sephiroth did, would we?" I pulled him away from the door.  
  
He faced the floor and wandered through the town. Vincent and Tifa booked rooms in the lodge, Naz, Yuffie and Red XIII played in the snow, Barret and Cid were chatting with a few villagers at the bar while I went shopping for items and weapons. Phew, the weapons they had here were 'wow'. I was impressed that they were powerful. Thanked the shopkeeper and his granddaughter walked out the door.  
  
"How was Aerith" I wondered. I giggled at the sight of Naz and Yuffie burying Red XIII it the snow, "Hey, I'm freezing let me up." He complained but his fiery tail melted the ice before they uncovered him, now he was dripping wet.  
  
I sighed and thought, "Might as well check on Aerith," I quietly opened the door and stepped in.  
  
"Huh... where is she?" surprised she wasn't sitting at the table where we left her.  
  
Went down to the bedroom below and stumbled on a smooching couple. Again Cloud chose to stay with her when I told him not to. They were literally all over each other this time, from the stair I could see that Aerith had been crying. Cloud must've heard and rescued her. If this keeps up, will they get tired of each other? This is the question I asked myself ever since they were always together. No. I mustn't think otherwise or I fear she'll be taken away, again. I left the house with my face flushed in red and walked blindly to the trees.  
  
There the mayor approached me and said, "Thinking of going down there missy?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm going." I replied, snapping out of my day dream.  
  
"You'll need a snowboard, child," surprised at me.  
  
"I'll manage, thanks mister." He suddenly became tensed.  
  
"What's wrong, sir?" I asked.  
  
"Don't look now, here come the Shinra personnel." True to his word, there entering the town was Elena the Turk and a few Shinra soldiers.  
  
She investigated the town and boy was she surprised to see me, Naz, Yuffie and Red XIII.  
  
She walked in front of me and shouted to my face, "I can't forgive what you did to Tseng. I won't let you go that easily." I shrugged my shoulders and tried to tell her it was Sephiroth's fault.  
  
Still she didn't believe me. She lifted her hand in the air to bash me, but I dodged and maneuvered it. "Whoa ... ack." She fell and rolled in the snow.  
  
Naz, Yuffie and Red XIII laughed at her as they saw the guards run after her. It was indeed a funny site. The next morning, I went to the house in the middle of town.  
  
The father was surprised to receive visitors. "All of us?" I asked him. He pointed to Red, Naz and Yuffie.  
  
I scratched my head and asked to see his son. He showed me to the room and I saw the boy weep. "What's wrong kid?" I comforted the boy.  
  
"I got hurt while playing with my snowboard." He answered sadly.  
  
Out of the blue his face lit up and he got up to get the snowboard from the bed.  
  
"I know, I'll give you the snowboard and when you get good with it could you teach me?" he asked with his eyes shining brightly.  
  
"Sure, of course we will." Naz answered.  
  
He thanked us and vice versa. Before we left, I gave him a few old toys and some candy which brightened his face even more.  
  
"Time to round up the gang, lil' bro.," I said to Naz.  
  
"Yeah," said Yuffie.  
  
I went back to where I left Aerith and Cloud and found them still at it, but this time they were lying down with Cloud on top of Aerith. From the stair, I cleared my throat. They panicked trying to hide their embarrassment.  
  
"Hey you two, time to round up. I'm sorry to interrupt but we have a meeting." I giggled at their reaction.  
  
They got up and followed me topside, smoothing their hair. At the inn, Jacques led the meeting.  
  
"Ok, we've got the snowboard now, and it's our only way down the slope. It can take the weight of three passengers and the rest have to be carried by Grey Fox, Enima and me." He shouts out.  
  
Cid was the first to volunteer to be carried by us. Cait Sith decided to slide the whole way as he was a toy and loved sliding down slopes. Naz decided to carry Yuffie. Cloud, Vincent and Barret (lucky for us) decided to go on the snowboard. That means I had to carry Tifa and Aerith. Poor Jacques, he had to carry Red XIII and Cid.  
  
"Sorry I couldn't help buddy, I've got my hands full." Naz patted Jacques's shoulder and pointed to Yuffie.  
  
Jacques and I rolled our eyes and got prepared. I had designed special seats for mine and Jacques's passengers so they'd be secure. But the bad part of it was that we had to sling them on our backs like Wilbur the Albatross in the Disney movie the Rescuers.  
  
"Well at least it beats carrying them on our shoulders." He sighed. At first the girls, Cid and Red weren't keen on going through with it as they had to lean on their backs for a while. Luckily, Jacques didn't forget to get the map from the man who lived at the very end of town.  
  
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	14. The Weapons

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters.  
  
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Flying was a breeze, even though I had passengers on my back. Jacques and Naz were enjoying themselves too. Once or twice, I caught Naz getting all lovey-dovey with Yuffie and he hated me for it. Well, that's what older siblings are for. Below, we made sure that we didn't lose sight of the snowboarders. After 20 minutes of boarding and flying, we reached the Ice Gate Glacier, an icy prison.  
  
"We'll communicate using the PHS. We're splitting up for now. We'll meet up at Gaea's Cliff." Cid announced.  
  
All of us were divided in twos and each chose their partners, but when it came to Cloud, Aerith, Tifa and Vincent it was exceptional. I put Cloud with Vincent and Tifa with Aerith. They hated me for it but if I didn't, they'd wonder off and might abort the mission. I was with Jacques as Yuffie only wanted to be with Naz. Cait Sith was with Red XIII, and Cid was stuck with Barret. At least this way we won't miss any valuable items that we were to pick up along the way, especially the Alexander summon materia which is very powerful.  
  
Jacques and I went looking for the Alexander materia, Cloud and Vincent hunted for the double cut materia, Aerith and Tifa looked for the mediocre Safety Bit, and the others hunted for the other useful items. Jacques and I barely got through the Central Map area as it twirled around every time we moved. Finally after so much confusion, we made it to the cave where we would find it. There was an old witch there and she found out that we were at the hot springs, the one place she hated. She was just an ordinary snow enemy and we used Fire 3 on her, but her love confuses attack got to Jacques and started attacking me instead.  
  
You're asking for it you monster." I shouted as I showered her with Flame thrower arrows.  
  
Aghhhhh..." she screamed and melted away.  
  
Recovering from the affects of the spell, Jacques kept apologizing. I forgave him, but it wasn't enough for him, so he kissed me.  
  
"I forgive you, really," I said when we parted.  
  
At Gaea's Cliff, we were the second to arrive. Naz and Yuffie were the first and curled up by the fire. They looked so cute together; I didn't want to disturb them. Jacques pulled me to the next room; there we met the owner of the shack. He gave us tips on what and what not to do when climbing Gaea's Cliff. Must never let your body temperature go below 28 degrees Celsius and every now and then we have to shake around and rub our shoulders to keep warm.  
  
When he was finished he left the room. I think it's weird but even though it was warm in the shack I felt cold. Not sure why, but I shivered with cold. We joined Naz and Yuffie by the fire. Naz was surprised to see us together and asked whether we were serious. The both of us didn't answer and he took it as a yes. I asked him if he and Yuffie were together, he immediately said yes.  
  
5 minutes later, the owner of the shack appeared and called us outside. We gathered in a circle and discussed on how we should climb. Barret suggested we go in groups of four and after the first group goes, the following one goes 5 minutes later to meet in the cave. The idea was reasonable and easy to work with. Cloud, Barret, Cid and Red XIII went in the first group and climbed the steep cliff trying to stand the bitter cold. At each ledge there was a flag and it was there all of us had to warm up or else pass out. My group was the second to go, there was me, Aerith, Tifa, and Yuffie. Naz, Jacques, Vincent and Cait Sith were last to go, but luckily it was easy for them to get around as the paths were a little warmer and easier to find. In the cave, in our groups we split up to look for paths. After it was cleared, it was easier to get by. The hard bit was to get through the icicles. Even though they were easy to beat but had quite high defense.  
  
The next big challenge was the Twinhead, a two headed dragon with its own vulnerability. The right head is vulnerable to ice, while the left is vulnerable to fire. This one was tricky so everyone was equipped with aurora and fire armlets and fire and ice rings. With them and the Alexander summon materia; we were invincible at least till the final attack where it shoots a lightning blast that damages us big time. To get to Sephiroth, we needed to pass through the crater and gusts of strong wind with lightning bolts and green gusts. The big layer of general wind was especially annoying and it took us quite a while to get past all three. Before passing through the third area of general wind, we had to fight Jenova.  
  
With all our armor and accessories still on, we were invulnerable to her attacks and beating her was a piece of cake. Our prize was the black materia and someone had to keep it safe. Cloud chose Barret to handle it while, he, Aerith, Tifa and Vincent pursued Rufus, Scarlet and Professor Hojo. I wanted to go too, but Cloud refused and said I should stay behind. The whole area was teaming with energy and everything was crystallized. It was lovely and all were materia. When they arrived after the Shinra personnel, Cloud went ballistic. Hojo said something about a reunion and that Cloud was a failed experiment. Cloud was actually a Sephiroth clone with Jenova cells, his ego and has been exposed to much more Mako energy than the others. He was actually begging to Hojo to give him a numbered tattoo like the other clones and experiments.  
  
"Cloud, what's wrong with you?" Aerith cried as she rushed to him.  
  
"Oh the ancient is here, too. Good, but I'm afraid we won't need you, as we have found the Promised Land," He said aloud.  
  
"This...this is... the Promised Land?" she sounded astonished.  
  
"Yes, and it is rich with Mako energy and with it we'll be rich, Gyaa ha, ha, ha." Scarlet laughed an evil laugh. Rufus just grinned.  
  
Suddenly, the ground rumbled and through the crystallized wall behind us we saw a huge eye of Ultimate Weapon. The Weapons are beasts that are awakened and create mass destruction when they sense the Planet is in danger. In this case they needed to save the world from the Shinra organization. There were five of them. In order, there was Sapphire Weapon, Diamond Weapon, Emerald Weapon, Ruby Weapon and the most powerful of all was Ultimate Weapon. All five were activated at once. The rumbling stopped, for now. Barret suddenly dawdled over bearing the black materia.  
  
"There Cloud, it's safe and I didn't give it to anyone." He felt proud of himself till, Cloud asked for the materia.  
  
"Cloud, what's wrong?" he asked, rubbed his head.  
  
"Nothing's wrong Barret, just give me the black materia." He acted possessed and held out his hand.  
  
"Barret don't give it to him," Aerith, Tifa, Vincent and the rest of us shouted.  
  
We zoomed from our waiting place when we found Barret missing.  
  
"What... what's going on Cloud?" he looked solemnly at Cloud.  
  
Cloud didn't answer and snatched the materia from Barret's large hand. "Hey, what gives?" Barret bellowed as Cloud flew up to the ceiling and revealed something which made us gasp in horror.  
  
There in the middle of the ceiling was SEPHIROTH in the crystallized in the clear aqua crystal!  
  
"Cloud, no...!" Naz, Vincent, Tifa, Aerith and Red XIII shouted while Jacques and I flew to stop him.  
  
Too late... his hand passed through and gave the black materia to Sephiroth! Cloud just curled upside like a bat and didn't want to come down. He didn't even budge when I brought Aerith to see him or when she kissed him. Nearly gave up hope, wanted to float downwards when I saw, emerging from the crystal's reflection, I caught a glimpse of Kujah and the Evil Ansem. They grinned sinisterly at me. I froze with my mouth open, shook my head frantically and looked again, they were gone.  
  
Aerith waved a hand in front of me and pointed downwards Barret and Red XIII signaled to go as the place was caving in. Wanted to get Cloud but a large piece of crystal prevented me from doing so. Rufus scrambled us to the Highwind as we needed to escape. Right before a force field protected the Crater we were in; I crashed on to the Highwind's deck with Aerith in my arms.  
  
We crashed with a boom and what made things worse was the impact made by the force field shielding the Crater. The impact rocked the Highwind even more and nearly threw a few of us off board. Further more, the loss of Cloud even for a moment was unbearable for Aerith and instead of Tifa, she fainted and nearly fell overboard. Cid caught her just in time as he was the nearest to her.  
  
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	15. Conquered the Highwind

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters or the storyline of the game. They belong to the great Squaresoft/Square Enix  
  
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Rufus let her rest in a ward at Shinra H.Q. in Junon. All of us waited in the room with her. While the others slept I stayed up by her side, couldn't shut my eyes even if I wanted to. I couldn't bear to see her in that state. She was like a corpse for days, even though I didn't sleep I found myself dozing off but the feeling of being in a hospital like ward woke me up at once. Everyone took shifts watching her with me. When she awoke, my eyes had already lost their energy and drifted off into another realm. Jacques, who dozed off before me kept me warm by wrapping his arm around me. She was surprised to be in a ward and with us by her side. Got up and the first thing she saw was me and stroked my hair.  
  
My eyes opened and I jumped on her like the kid I was. Jacques was pleased to see me happy but when he looked around, where was everyone?  
  
Rufus came into the room and complimented upon her recovery, "Well, you're awake, excellent, just in time for you to watch your friends being executed on live broadcast."  
  
"Where's my brother and Yuffie you monster?" I shouted.  
  
"Sadly I don't know. He and the ninja girl disappeared along with your pet cat. But at least we still have the leaders of AVALANCHE and you. We have big plans for you, the ancient and your boy friend." A sinister grin grew on his face. "But first we'll let you watch your friends' die and Hojo will take care of you. Come along now,"  
  
"At least he didn't have us bound" I gratefully sighed.  
  
We were taken to the broadcast room where there were reporters, cameramen and Shinra personnel. Tifa was already being taken to the gas chamber by Scarlet and a few guards. I wanted to run over there and slap Scarlet's irritating face but Aerith shook her head at me. It was lucky for Tifa that the guard dropped the key and all she had to do was reach it.  
  
All of a sudden...enk... enk... enk... enk .... The alarm sounded. Sapphire Weapon was charging in hot pursuit. All the reporters and personnel left the room except a few unidentified people. Cait Sith jumped out of his disguise and sprayed sleep gas on Scarlet. He unlocked everyone's chains and the other three people revealed themselves to us. It was Sam mine and Naz's distant cousin, Serena my little sister/ cousin and my best friend Siew Mei.  
  
"Oh, my god, how did you three get here?" I asked in awe and excitement.  
  
"Well, Wakka sent us saying you'll need all the help you can get." he gave a thumb up to us.  
  
I was at lost for words and wanted to give the gang, but that had to come later as we had to rescue Tifa. Barret tried shooting the door open but it was to no avail. Sam tried to slash it open with his katars but no good.  
  
"We may have to find it outside the switch from the outside." Cait Sith cried. We nodded but could still hear her banging the gas chamber door.  
  
There was nothing we could do till we found the switch. As soon as we exited the room, Scarlet who was still in there locked us out and called us fools.  
  
"Follow me to the airport." Cait Sith led on.  
  
"Are you nuts? We need to save Tifa!" Barret shouted with Vincent.  
  
"Trust me I know what I'm doing." He assured.  
  
"Believe him Barret," I patted his shoulder and he nodded.  
  
Sapphire Weapon was closing in the perimeter and outside we found Naz and Yuffie disguised as a reporter and a cameraman. They joined us and headed for the Highwind. Back to Tifa, she managed to release herself from the poison of the gas and when Sapphire Weapon attacked, it created an exit for Tifa. Rufus asked to fire the Junon cannon at it and after a while, it disappeared. Tifa, after the cannon started recharging, ran to the edge to be followed by Scarlet and they started a slap fight. Tifa, in the end managed to get the last slap before running to the end of the cannon and catching the ladder Vincent threw down for her.  
  
We have conquered the Highwind! There on the roof Sam, Serena and Siew Mei told me their professions and how they felt when they were pulled in. They felt normal at the idea of being pulled in and have adapted quite well and fast. Siew Mei was a mage, with a bright blue short robe, which looked like a short and light armor and a cape. Her skin maintained its milky color and she had darkish violet hair which flew nearly half-way down her back. As weapons, she used a mace and a staff like the one used by Gandalf, from Lord of the Rings. Sam was rouge; he wore a mysterious-like out fit which included a trench coat that made him look enigmatic and looked like an Egyptian mummy crossed over with a ninja. He looked a bit like Barret, but slimmer, younger and less rugged. He used katars, daggers and a variety of blades hidden in his clothes. Serena or Celest was a knight, with long flaming red hair tied half, fair skin and bright and sustainable armor. Her weapons were spears, lances, sabers and swords. After the introduction, I introduced them to the others and went to check on Naz and Yuffie. She was sick again and I passed a few tranquilizers to Naz to give her.  
  
"Move around a bit Yuffie. It would help." I said sympathetically.  
  
I returned to the bridge and told Captain Cid that we'll be visiting a few familiar places. For now, Aerith was the leader. Tifa and I were her assistants as she wasn't used to leading. We went to Nibelheim to get Tifa's final limit break and shopped in Junon, Cosmo Canyon, Condor Fort and Rocket Town. We even bought the chocobo stables till the last one to breed chocobos. We hunted for Zeio nuts and cactuers on Cactuer and Goblin Islands. For tips on raising chocobos, we went to Chocobo Sage's house in the ice area. At Rocket Town, Cid couldn't wait to find Shera. Ever since the date scene, the two have been more or less like lovers instead of Captain and crew. What came over Cid is uncanny. I agree that it was best for it to turn out this way other than always scolding her. At the house, we stumbled on them embracing and caressing one another (well maybe just Cid caressing Shera). From the look on her face, she had missed him too.  
  
"Yo, Cid, mind if we crash here for a few days, in the town I mean," I asked, embarrassed to find them having some private time.  
  
"Feel at home, my town is your town." He welcomed us with open arms as if we just met.  
  
It was quite a funny sight, but managed to control myself from bursting. It was relaxing to stay in a town like this one once in a while. It could get rather uneasy staying on the Highwind for days. At least down here there are grounds to train and relax.  
  
Naz, Yuffie, Jacques, Red XIII and I often traveled to the Nibel Mountains to train and to search for enemy skills. Training there would have its rewards as the monsters carry handy items we could use for our journey. By the evening, we'd have quite a haul of items. Barret would help tune the weapons at the weapon store, being the expert at heavy artillery. Tifa and Vincent worked part time at the bar. The bartender was surprised at how well business had improved as the couple had attracted quite a crowd. The uniqueness of the way the two worked and the way they looked was an attraction. Both of them were having the time of their lives, especially Vincent as he glad just to be near Tifa. Aerith was hustling and bustling at the kitchen with Shera as they were teaching each other how to cook. It wasn't really the time for that sort of skill unless we were in a "Cooking Master Boy" anime series. After what seemed to be a week, we set out again. Refreshed and relaxed, it was time to search for Cloud at Mideel.  
  
"Thank you letting us stay here, Cid," Tifa thanked him, we all did.  
  
"No problem was great to be at home." He finally had a decent smile on his face.  
  
Mideel was an isolated island, on the south east coast of Junon and Midgar. Mideel village was our destination and the place we may have to switch leaders again. The town was quite run down; the environment was friendly and very tropical. Aerith, Vincent and Tifa overheard a conversation between two old men about a man being washed up on the shore from the Lifestream. "Excuse me, we overheard your conversation, where was the man brought to," Vincent asked them. They pointed to the hospital and Aerith rushed to the destination. Red XIII and I ran after her followed by Tifa, Vincent and Cid. There in a wheel chair was indeed our respectable leader Cloud. The trip at the icy area must have made the systems in his head burn a fuse and looked no more like a mentally retarded patient. I could feel Aerith's heart melt at the sight of her loved one. Tifa and Vincent too could feel her sorrow.  
  
"I have decided, I'm going to stay by his side till he's well, Lisa, I'm appointing you and Cid as the next leaders." Cid accepted understanding the situation but I froze as I didn't think I'd be able to lead a group.  
  
Tifa ruffled my head and said, "You'll make a perfect leader and it had always been you that led us into things. You seem to know what we'll do next so she's not wrong to choose you." She had a point, and I took it seriously.  
  
Tifa and Vincent decided to stay with Aerith to keep her company. She asked them to go with us but instead they hung around in town. "You'll never know when there's an attack." Vincent gave an excuse.  
  
"I'd better stay behind, too. I'll call if there's anything." Jacques waved to us. We bid them farewell and boarded the Highwind.  
  
"Remember the time Scarlet mentioned something about huge materia?" I asked Red XIII and Yuffie.  
  
"Yeah, that's what they're after right now." Red answered.  
  
"Let's split up, there's one at Condor Fort and at the Corel Mountain. It'll be faster if we split up. Naz, Yuffie, Red and Siew Mei, you'll follow me to Condor Fort, Barret, Sam and Cait Sith you'll follow Cid to Corel Mountain. If either of us has succeeded our mission first, will rendezvous to aid the ones who haven't, got it?"  
  
"Yeah...!" Everyone shouted together. "Alright, lets move, people," Cid commanded.  
  
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	16. The real Cloud

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters.  
  
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We flew like the wind to the Condor Fort and made it just in time before the Shinra troops invaded the reactor.  
  
"Thank goodness, you're here. Our fate lies with you now as we are powerless right now. The attack is much greater than before and we're lacking funds and men." The headman cried desperately.  
  
"We've got it covered; we'll supply the funds and lead the battle. Don't worry; they won't get their filthy hands on the reactor, not now, not ever." I grinned at him and the others followed.  
  
He was forever grateful and got ready the troops. We got as many, catapults, rock sliders, defenders, attackers, repairmen, soldiers and fire catapults to fill the area with extra Gil to spare. As promised, we led the troops to battle. Siew Mei created shields and cast barriers on us to protect us from the attacks. The vermin came by the dozen and we managed to hold them off long enough till the big cheese arrived. The commander that led the enemy troops was all muscle and less brain. It managed to get through us but couldn't escape the ambush the awaited him nearer to the fort. He tried to escape but was unlucky, as when we joined the ambush we closed every available path there was. It took less than an hour to defeat them and when it was over, the ground rocked and danced beneath our feet.  
  
"It's not an earth...quake. The phoenix egg is hatching!" the headman barely could say the words as he was trying to steady himself through the rumbles.  
  
It stopped as suddenly as it started. We went to investigate the roof and saw the Condor being thrown off and a bright light blanketed the reactor. There in the middle of the egg was a baby bird, which was as big as the buggy.  
  
"How cute..." I whispered to myself.  
  
There glowing next to the shell. It was the phoenix summoning materia. The little guy wanted to fly, I signaled Siew Mei to give it a boost. She summoned a whirlwind and the little bird floated in the air flapping its wings till it flew without the help of the whirlwind.  
  
"Humph... this wasn't the huge materia we were looking for, we wasted our time here kak..." Naz grumbled when we gathered at the main level.  
  
"No, it wasn't, but this is what you kids are after." The old man handed to us a huge red materia.  
  
"How did... then what was that we helped to protect?" Siew Mei asked with her mouth and eyes wide open.  
  
"You were defending the condor, and the egg. When the Shinra first built the reactor on this mountain, they said we could live here and later they came back for the materia which was being grown. I knew of their plan and kept the materia with me so they couldn't find it." He laughed, and had all the right to do so.  
  
"So you kept it all along, huh gramps." I asked, feeling the urge to laugh with him.  
  
He nodded and said he'd give it to us as a thank you reward for saving the fort. We couldn't thank him enough and said good bye to them. "You're always welcome here!" the headman waved to us as we left.  
  
"Let's go help Cid." Naz called out. We flew in the speed of light, Naz carried Yuffie, and I carried Red XIII.  
  
"Oh no... the train is about to crash into the town!" Siew Mei screamed.  
  
Cid was already on board the Shinra train and was fighting the goons on board.  
  
"Cid, go to the controls. We'll take care of things here!" Sam shouted.  
  
"Easy for you to say, where are Enima and her pals when you need them." He grumbled.  
  
"We're right here," caught him by surprise.  
  
"Naz, follow Cid, we'll deal with the enemies!" I commanded him.  
  
He did as he was told and we rumbled with the enemies. As soon as we finished with the enemies we followed Naz/Grey Fox and Cid. We were approaching the town and Cid panicked as he tried to slow the train down. Creaks... creak... Naz managed to pull the breaks and stop the train in time before it hit the town. The villagers were overjoyed and called us heroes. They even apologized to Barret for being rough on him. They let us stay at the inn for free and presented us with Barret's final limit break Catastrophe, the Ultima materia and the huge materia.  
  
"Thank you so much for saving our town." The old woman said before we left.  
  
"It was a pleasure especially for my hometown." Barret answered bashfully.  
  
Back at Mideel, Aerith was by Cloud's side and once in a while, Jacques and the other lovebirds came to check on them. Nothing new, He was out of this world.  
  
"Jacques, we're on our way back. How are they?" I asked anxiously.  
  
"So far nothing, he's still the same, but Aerith is as loyal as can be. She can be qualified as a loyal wife, but they aren't married." He replied.  
  
He was as worried as we were.  
  
"I have a bad feeling about returning to Mideel." Red XIII suddenly let out off his chest.  
  
"I feel it, too," Siew Mei/Lynn added. Truth is I felt it as well. Naz and Yuffie did, too.  
  
Ultimate Weapon was on its way. Made sure we were in top condition before we landed the Highwind. Our first priority was to Cloud, he was our leader, and he needed to recover. While Cid and I went to check on our poor leader, the others went shopping. They updated the stock and weaponry. Yuffie even found an old key and tried it out at the mystery door at the materia store. The door turned out to be a picture on the wall and for being honest with the shopkeeper; she was given a cursed ring, a powerful but dangerous accessory. Red XIII even attracted the baby chocobo that was following the extra hyper lady around everywhere, with the Mimett grass he had carried. When he stroked it behind its ears, it gave him a materia. Back at the hospital, like Jacques said, nothing changed he was still the same but he kept saying, he's coming.  
  
I think he meant Ultimate Weapon as he had arrived and caused a series of earthquakes.  
  
"He's here, Vincent, Tifa stay with them we'll take care of him." Barret instructed firmly.  
  
Man... was he huge; Ultimate Weapon was bigger than Godzilla and he flies. His power and strength matched his size.  
  
"Pour it on; we need a lot of our strength to defeat him. Siew Mei, Serena follow me, we'll attack from the air!" I called as I flew upwards.  
  
To weaken him, I sent out Venom arrows and Serena used her "Omega charge" on him. "Omega charge" is a combination attack where she is charged up with lightning, whirlwind and blue flames; together a tornado is created and will shock and burn the enemy. Lynn cast darkness rays on him which weakened her greatly. Ultimate Weapon surrendered and retreated when we were just getting warmed up, but the earthquakes never ceased and bit by bit the village sank into the Lifestream. Vincent, Tifa and Aerith barely made it across pushing Cloud's wheelchair and all four fell into the Lifestream.  
  
"Let me go, we need to save them..." I struggled to break free from Jacques's and Barret's grasp.  
  
"No... Vincent, Tifa, Cloud, AEERITH...!" I called out trying to reach out to them.  
  
All the others could do was watch my antics and wait for a miracle to occur. In the Lifestream, Aerith, Vincent and Tifa found themselves stranded in darkness. It wasn't until Aerith called Cloud's name before they found themselves in Cloud's shattered mind.  
  
"Cloud..." Aerith felt his pain and sorrow, in front of her lies the true Cloud but shattered and scattered.  
  
She wanted to help him, all three did. First was Nibelheim when he first returned in five to seven years. It was Zack who was in SOLDIER First Class, not Cloud. Even so, Zack took care of him and it was he who became close friends with Cloud, not Sephiroth. Next was, when he asked to meet Tifa at the well and the promise. Cloud admired Tifa, and was surprised she came as she was from the popular crowd. The second last, was the window to Tifa's room. He had never been there before and it showed the real Cloud. Cloud was considered a weakling and had always wanted to fit in but couldn't. He'd hang around them, hoping to be noticed but never was.  
  
When Tifa's mom passed away, she decided to look for her spirit and Cloud followed. But when they were on the canopy bridge, Cloud was with her and the bridge collapsed. Cloud was injured lightly, but Tifa was in a coma for days. Everyone blamed Cloud, even though it wasn't his fault. He had always looked through her window from the outside hoping that she'll notice him or forgive him. It was then he asked her to meet him at the well. This shows that they were never close, during their childhood days. This made Tifa feel really awful and angry at herself for not recalling sooner. She had wronged him and kept the truth from him. But... not all was a lie. In Nibelheim, the soldier who fainted during the fire, near her house, was Cloud.  
  
At the reactor where Jenova was kept, it was Zack who was with her and he was slain by Sephiroth. Tifa tried to stop him but he slashed her. Sensing there was danger afoot, from guarding outside he rushed in to find his first best friend slain.  
  
Zack's last words to Cloud were, "Get rid of Sephiroth, Cloud. It's all up to you now." And he fainted.  
  
Cloud was devastated, took off his mask and took Zack's sword. He went up to Sephiroth and slashed him from behind.  
  
"My hometown, my friends, my family, what have you done?! Why did you take them away from me?!" he screamed.  
  
Sephiroth fell holding his murasame in his hand. Astonished, he limped out the door and tried to get away. Before pursuing him, Cloud tended to Tifa and she said he'd kept his promise to save her.  
  
At the edge of the platform, Sephiroth tried to run and saw Cloud zoom after him. He stabbed Cloud with his murasame but was shocked he didn't die. Cloud, with the blade sliced through his body, he grabbed hold of the blade and threw Sephiroth into the core of the old reactor. This shows that Cloud was even more powerful than Sephiroth, though he never realized. It didn't end there, later Cloud himself fainted and Zangan, Tifa's master, arrived to get rid off Sephiroth but, in a quick change of heart, he rescued Tifa instead leaving Cloud and Zack to perish. After he left, Hojo appeared and 'saved' Cloud and Zack. He brought them back to Midgar and used them as guinea pigs in his experiments.  
  
He had implanted Jenova cells into both of them to create the perfect soldiers like he did to his son, Sephiroth. The cells had no affect on Zack but it reacted otherwise on Cloud. Not long after, they both escaped his clutches, but the attempt to escape caused Zack to loose his life and Cloud suffered memory loss. That was when he joined AVALANCHE and told Zack's story like it were his. Before Zack fell, he had given Cloud the same clothes like he wore and his Buster Sword. Then...black out....  
  
Aerith cried, not for herself but for Zack's parents, after the scene. They would be upset to know the fate that befell their only son and her first love. Tifa comforted her, and Vincent faced the floor in sorrow, as this was what happened to the son of the love of his life Lucrecia. The son he could've had with her. Cloud had found his true self at last and the first thing he did was embrace and apologized to Aerith.  
  
She didn't blame him for any of it and was glad to have him hold her again. Tifa comforted Vincent, whose face fell greatly like none has seen before. He was grieved once more for the loss of his love, Lucrecia. Tifa wanted to hold him but was scared he'd turn her away and fell in Aerith's arms seeking shelter. She understood and told her to be patient.  
  
"Let's swim back up to the surface, everyone's waiting for us." Tifa murmured between sighs.  
  
"Yes, let's go together." She glanced at Cloud, who smiled and nodded then at Tifa who held her hand.  
  
The Lifestream was a brilliant light sea green in their eyes as they ascended from the depths.  
  
(Back on the surface)  
  
"Cloud, wake up, man." Barret shook him hard.  
  
"Aerith, Tifa, please get up," I whispered as Siew Mei and gently slapped their faces to wake them.  
  
"Hey, Vince, snap out of it, stop joking, get up." Speed/ Jacques, Sam and struggled to rouse him.  
  
Vincent was the first to wake up, "Speed, Sam, why the long faces?" he grinned as he got up (he calls us (my friends and I) by our code names).  
  
"Good to see you're safe, man," Sam gave him a down low slap on his hand.  
  
Then Cloud came around. Barret helped him to get into sitting position. "Are you back?" he asked eagerly.  
  
Cloud answered sarcastically, "I think so, better give me a knock on the head Barret, just to make sure." Barret just did as he was told, but instead of knocking his head, he ruffled Cloud's blonde sea urchin like head. Yuffie and Red XIII laughed at the way Cloud struggled to release himself from Barret's head ruffles. Didn't he'd be a lot like Lara, my annoying little sister. She hates it when I ruffle her head. In fact she never listens to me anyway, as she's too matured for her age.  
  
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	17. The Huge Materia

Aerith and Tifa came around together as best friends do. "Enima, Lynn, don't be sad, we're fine," Tifa smiled at us and wiped a tear of joy from my eye. Aerith got up and struggled to stand. Red XIII supported her as she made her way to Cloud, who was still on the ground in the middle of Barret's head ruffles. She tripped and fell forward. Barret had let go of Cloud when he saw her fall. Tried to catch her but missed by a mile, she fell once again on Cloud. Thud... Cloud caught her. Was it just me or the fact that Aerith had gotten a little weaker after they were washed up from the Lifestream? Well what ever happened, Cloud or the others don't really care as they were thankful enough that she lived.  
  
Vincent went over to Tifa, "Tifa, I apologize for my behavior in the Lifestream. Will you forgive me?" he pleaded. She faced him and looked deep into his eyes. Remnants of memories of his lost love Lucrecia were still visible from the Lifestream event.  
  
"Tifa, I loved her but that has passed and was how many years ago. I love you," he confessed, with sorrow in his shattered heart. All were moved when he confessed his feelings to Tifa.  
  
Who would've thought Vincent would have feelings for Tifa or would be so open? He, who was so mysterious and grieves over the loss of his love Lucrecia to Hojo who used her, Vincent has changed from the Vincent we first met. We were really taken by surprise, but accepted the change as it was for the best. Vincent and Tifa were facing each other for a long time. As we couldn't leave without them, we waited for them patiently. At long last, Tifa jumped into his arms and forgave him. Cid was sad he had to leave Shera, seeing Tifa and Vincent that way made him want to be with Shera.  
  
"Cid, we'll be seeing her sooner than you think. Have you ever heard the saying 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'?" I asked contently. He nodded asked the point I was making. "My point is, absence may bring you two closer than when you are together. Be patient and you'll be reunited soon." I smiled softly at him. He closed his eyes and turned away. Must have gotten the message but I would never know for sure.  
  
Not long after Cloud became leader again, Cait Sith informed us about the next Huge materia's whereabouts. It was to be transported from the Undersea Reactor off the coast of Junon. "Well, it's time crash they're plans again, right?" Sam asked Cloud.  
  
"Yeah, we have to retrieve all of the huge materia to keep them safe or risk losing the battles ahead." He answered.  
  
"Time to get going; does anyone know where the entrance of the undersea reactor is?" He asked everyone.  
  
"We do," Serena answered. "Celest..?" Vincent was puzzled.  
  
"Yes, we do know. When we first arrived here, we investigated every inch of the Shinra base in Junon." Lynn continued.  
  
"Well then, lead the way. Lynn, Celest and Sam, you'll lead this investigation. Bring Grey Fox, Red XIII, Speed and Enima with you." Cloud concluded.  
  
"You're not coming with us?" Jacques asked.  
  
"Not this time, we want to test your skills and let you feel glory on in a while." He grinned thoughtfully.  
  
I snickered and nodded. They dropped us off at Junon and the guard who guarded the elevator to go up to the base asked us to pay him to go up. Before we went up, I had to find out how Priscilla was doing. At first she didn't recognize me. She greeted me warmly and embraced me. Priscilla wasn't as bad as I thought she was until she saw Jacques and asked to be introduced. After the introduction, she turned red like a tomato.  
  
"Speed, do you have a girlfriend?" she suddenly asked him. I didn't see this coming and didn't know that she was the flirty type. To save me from jealousy, he pulled me towards his chest and said, "I believe so, you see WE have been going out for three years." I could see the disappointment in her eyes but she tried her best to conceal it.  
  
"Then I'll wish both of you all the luck with your relationship." She forced a smile and let us out the door. Ai... she didn't have to get that sensitive.  
  
Sam and Lynn led us through the sectors in the base to an elevator. We were careful not to trip any alarms along the way and none of the soldiers recognized us. The route to the underwater reactor was magnificent. It was like walking amongst the underwater life. I'm sure mom would've loved walking here with me. We even saw the dolphin. But bad thing about being here was; it was crawling with monsters including a scary looking one called the ghost ship. WE encountered many ghost ships; they were skeletons which were part pirate ship. The funny and ironic thing about them was they were powerful, but were weak against healing spells, maybe it's because they're already dead. We were too late to prevent the Turks from loading the huge materia onto the red Shinra submarine. Reno set a powerful C. Armor robot on us to enable them to escape. By the time we trashed the robot to bits, they had shoved off. The only way to catch up to them was to board the other Shinra submarine, the slick grey one and track them down. Next to it we found a chest which contained the key item Leviathan Scales which we could use to put out the fire in the cave in Wutai. We had to defeat and take a few of the soldiers as hostages in order to conquer the submarine. Sam piloted the submarine while Grey Fox was the navigator, Celest and I kept the prisoners calm Lynn searched for mines and attacks and Speed took care of the engine room.  
  
"Enemy submarine at close range, what do we do," Lynn informed Sam. "Fire torpedoes, now!" he commanded.  
  
Jacques loaded torpedoes one after another and in no time at all, we sunk the enemy submarine.  
  
"Yeah, woo hoo!" all of us shouted for joy. Suddenly there was a code red alert and a distress call to our submarine to return at once to get ready to depart for Rocket Town where the remaining huge materia is being taken.  
  
"Oh my god, I nearly forgot, Naz we better hurry over there. They're going to load it onto the rocket and blast it off to space in order to 'stop' the meteor!" I panicked and got really hyper.  
  
"Stop worrying kak, we'll get there in time." He patted my back really hard to stop me from worrying.  
  
"We'll retrieve this materia later, let's get to Rocket town." Jacques called from the engine room.  
  
On the shore, we docked our submarine and raced to the Highwind, apparently they got the message from Reeve/ Cait Sith. They were waiting for us and forgot the fact that we could fly. Cid blew a fuse when he heard about what the Shinra were about to do and still haven't forgiven them for stopping the project before.  
  
At Rocket Town, everyone was getting excited as the rocket was about to be launched.  
  
"Oh no... hope we're not too late," I panicked again.  
  
Cid, Cloud, Red XIII and I scrambled while the others stayed behind. The only reason I followed was I had a code stuck in my mind and wondered whether it had anything to do with the rocket. On the platform, Rude was waiting for us.  
  
"Go first I'll catch up." I told them firmly.  
  
They had second thoughts but went when I shouted to them.  
  
"This would be easy," he grinned. "Don't bet on it baldy." I flicked my nose and got into ready position.  
  
I didn't use be bow and arrows at all but I used my limbs as they were getting rusty.  
  
"Bring it on!" he screamed and charged at me. I did a somersault which I was surprised I could do and dodged his attacks.  
  
"Yawn... could you do better than that?" I yawned at his antics.  
  
He charged again and this time I didn't manage to dodge. "Hah ha, ha, who's laughing now...?" he guffawed.  
  
"Me!" I cried as I kicked him of his feet and punched him in the belly. He groaned and sprawled on the floor.  
  
"Don't EVER underestimate me, baldy!" I told him off before flying up to the second platform to enter the rocket.  
  
Inside, Cid tried to contact ground patrol but was unsuccessful. The countdown had started with us inside. He tried to abort the countdown but Heidegger had locked the controls. We were trapped and all we could do in the mean time was hanging on when the rocket blast off.  
  
"I can't believe it, we're in outer space, and finally my dream has come true. If only she was here with me." He whispered in his heart.  
  
"You need to get the materia, right? Well let's go get it." Cid suddenly blurted out.  
  
He brought us to the containment unit, where the materia was set up. I tried the combination, 3422. Kaching ... the steel container opened.  
  
"Well I'll be damned girl, how did you guess the password?" he was surprised I figured out the puzzle in record time.  
  
"I was lucky I guess and those numbers were swimming in my head for sometime now." I said cheekily.  
  
With the materia in our grasp, we headed for the engine room. We were just passing through the oxygen tanks when ... BOOOM the 8th oxygen blew and the impact trapped Cid under a large piece of metal. He struggled to get up but the huge hunk of metal was too heavy for us to carry.  
  
He then regretted being cold towards Shera last time... He said out loud, "Shera I'm sorry for being mad at you the last time. You were right the tanks weren't satisfactory. Shera...!" his face fell and asked us to leave him be.  
  
"Cid... did you say something?" Shera popped out from the safety pod she had just examined and installed.  
  
"Shera!" we shouted together. "Yes, it's me why so surprised?" she asked with a question mark appearing above her head.  
  
She saw Cid underneath the pile of metal and tried to move it with our help. It moved and slowly Cid crawled out from under it. He embraced Shera and apologized to her a million times. She said she had forgiven him a long time ago and brought us to the escape pod. We left the rocket in the nick of time before the rocket rammed into the meteor. There was an explosion so great that everyone on the Planet could see it clearly and had to shield their eyes from the brightness of the light. The light show ended and to no avail, the meteor still remained, the strategy had failed. Cid was glad to be in outer space at last and with Shera, but was upset that the moment in space wouldn't last.  
  
Back on Earth, Sam, Siew Mei and Naz went to retrieve the huge materia from the ocean depths and had uncovered the Key of the Ancients as a special prize while they roamed underwater. We brought and kept the Master Materia, as Bugenhagen had called them, at his lab and according to him; we needed to master all our materia to use them. The red materia even gave us a Bahamut Zero summoning materia. We were in luck, because nearly all our materia were mastered and there were a few more materia we had to locate, to do that we needed chocobos. 


	18. The Chocobos

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters.  
  
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Before returning to the depths of the ocean, we started to breed chocobos. Again we split up into teams in search of mountain and river chocobos, and not to forget best or very good chocobos. Those who were lucky stumbled upon a herd of Mountain chocobos (the green ones) and in the same herd were the River chocobos (the baby blue ones) at Wutai Island. Sam, Celest, Lynn, Naz and Yuffie were in the lucky group and picked a male green one and a female blue one. They just came willingly without any monsters with them, like they knew we were friends.  
  
On the other hand, my group, with Jacques, Aerith and Cloud, had a little problem, we rounded up a few chocobos and couldn't different shape which were best and which weren't. We brought them back to Billy who said two were female and one was male. The male and one of the female were the best chocobos and the other female was a poor one. We let her go and kept the other two.  
  
We named the male Thunder and the female Storm. Cloud asked me why I named them that, I answered, "I thought these names would fit them best."  
  
When the other group was back from Wutai with the chocobos, they were mated at once while Cloud and Jacques went to race Storm and Thunder at the Chocobo race. They didn't come back till the chocobos were at rank S, the highest rank. By the time they got back, Thowra (the male green chocobo) and Rain (the female blue chocobo) had given birth to twins, both black chocobos but female and male. It was unusual as chocobos only give birth to one chick at a time. But anyway we welcomed the chicks warmly.  
  
By the time they were old enough, after a week, they were raced at the Gold Saucer till the highest rank. They too were given names, Shane (the male) and Meg (the female). Then they were mated with Storm and Thunder.  
  
By the next morning we were dazzled to find two beautiful chicks the color of Gold and both, again were of different genders. This was the first time we had ever seen the legendary gold chocobos. Even in the game I have never managed to breed one but I'm glad to see one. I took my camera and snapped a few shots of each chocobo as a memoir. Hopefully the film will develop well. The chocobos didn't mind me taking the photos and instead of fleeing they posed and danced for me. They were just so loving and adorable, it would be sad to leave them.  
  
When the chocobos were strong enough we brought both the gold chocobos with us. Their names were Spark and Gwen. With them, we retrieved the treasures from hard to reach places. The most precious and powerful of all treasures was the Knights of the Round summoning materia. The other treasures included Quadra magic materia, mimic materia and Mp/Hp switch materia. The chocobos were what we call 'manja' with us. They're big fluffy but act like kitty cats always wanting attention and are very close to us. If only I'm able or allowed to bring one of them with me as I love them so much. The closest one to me and Jacques was Storm. As I was the one who caught her. Shane seemed to grown on Yuffie and my brother. Thowra had seemed to have favored Cloud and Aerith and Meg loved Tifa and Vincent. I don't mean to place favorites but the chocobos seem to grow on a few of us. Gwen was given a lot of care from Sam, Siew Mei and Serena. Spark and Rain were loved most by Barret, Cid, Red XIII and Cait Sith.  
  
Back to business, it was time to get Vincent's final limit break and best weapon at Lucrecia's cave. We used the submarine and Jacques piloted it this time. The ones who went were Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, Jacques, Aerith, Red XIII and me. The cave was smooth and cool, it had a strange magnificence and there was an altar at the end if the cave. Someone was there, surrounded by light and called out Sephiroth's name.  
  
"Lucrecia... you're alive, after all these years? Is it really you?" Vincent recognized the voice of his lost love and walked towards her.  
  
"Vincent... no, don't come any closer." She raised her and signaled him to stop.  
  
"Is my son alive? I never got to hold him and some said he died years ago. But I heard he has been around. Where is he, how is he?" she needed to know and it was she who bore Sephiroth and not really Jenova.  
  
"He seems alive and seeks revenge. Lucrecia come with us I beg of you and who knows we'll see him. Please Lucrecia ..." Vincent pleaded. "No... Don't come any closer..." she tried to stop him, but he came anyway.  
  
Then, in a flash... Vincent's past was shown for all of us to see. He was a Turk accompanying Professors Hojo, Gast and Lucrecia for the Jenova Project at the Shinra mansion. Then Vincent (he had short hair that time), had fallen for Lucrecia, but she had rejected his proposal for the love of science and left him in a million pieces. She ran from him forever.  
  
What made it worse, he found her with Hojo kissing and his heart suffered even more pain. He later found out that Hojo was using her for the Jenova project, but she just wouldn't listen to reason when Vincent told her. When Hojo found out, he shot Vincent and mutilated him. He used him the same way he used Lucrecia but instead turned him into a monster. After the experiment was over, Hojo left Vincent lying on the table and when he woke up, all he could feel was guilt and humiliation. For that he buried himself for 30 years in the coffin. His past was a tragic one, when it was over, we found ourselves outside and Vincent was quieter than usual. That might not have been Lucrecia or could have just been her restless soul. None of us could be sure. We set out to the ocean depths and scavenged to the old Shinra plane.  
  
In the plane, we found Rude and Reno trying to unlock the door to the cargo and helipad area.  
  
"You again, what are you up to this time?" Red XIII caught them by surprise.  
  
They jumped and explained that they were trying to salvage the plane and warned us about the monsters which were experiments are now at large in the plane. We got the message but they wouldn't let us through without a fight. I admit, they were a lot tougher than last time, but, they were no match for us. The evacuated the plane and left us in peace. There were many things in the place to uncover. We split up and were lucky not to run into any monsters till we got Cloud's powerful weapon, Heaven's Cloud, Yuffie's best weapon the Conformer, a Hades summoning materia, a double cut materia and Cid's final limit break the Highwind. The monsters we encountered were deadly and some had no name.  
  
After getting the goodies and surviving attacks from a few of the monsters, we ourselves fled from the plane. Back in the submarine, while making our way back to Lucrecia's cave, we bumped into Emerald Weapon and boy did he grumble. He was a tough opponent. His attacks were as deadly as his looks. We were on the verge of defeat when he crumbled at our feet.  
  
"We... we, we beat him? Oh my god, I never thought we could," I was about to get hyper again.  
  
"Yes, we beat him and without Cloud and Aerith." Tifa continued.  
  
"Yeah, and there's three more to go. Once emerald's gone, Ruby weapon will appear soon, Diamond will come later and we'll have to fight Ultima weapon soon, too." Red XIII stated a few facts.  
  
"We won't worry about that now; let's get back to Lucrecia's cave." Jacques called from the captain's seat.  
  
The sound of Lucrecia's name brought sorrow to Vincent's ever broken heart. Tifa reached out her hands to him but pulled them back as she feared that he would reject them. Vincent sensed her fear and faced her. He took her loving arms and held them tightly never to let go. Vincent was really unpredictable and to think he had gotten over the loss of his first rejected love.  
  
Back at the cave, Lucrecia was gone, but at the altar was Vincent's best weapon, Death Penalty and it was better than the Outsider, his other weapon we found in the downed Shinra plane. He kneeled at the altar to retrieve the weapon and found his final limit break with it. Vincent held them close to his heart and suddenly, after holding it in for so long, tears flowed from his eyes like rain. Tifa accompanied him and held him as he cried. The scene was touching, seeing them together and how Tifa stayed with him through his grief.  
  
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	19. Midgar is attacked

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters.  
  
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Whether we wanted to or not, we had to return to Cosmo Canyon as Bugenhagen had sent a message to the Highwind saying he that he wanted to join us while visiting the Forgotten City. We needed to know what the Key of the Ancients was for, and instinct told us we needed to return to the Forgotten City. We picked up Bugenhagen at Cosmo Canyon and he was overjoyed just being on the Highwind.  
  
As old as he was, 130 years old, he was still active and loved the feeling of traveling especially by air. We parked the Highwind just outside the Forgotten City and Bugenhagen was as intoxicated as we were at the beauty of the city. We brought him to the place at the very end of the city and found that it was actually a music box. "Allow me to insert the key." He offered and took the key and placed it at the key holder. Like a waterfall, water sprouted down and surrounded the fountain in the middle of the room.  
  
Only a selected few were able to go in. Aerith of course was the first, followed by Cloud, Tifa, Vincent, me and Lynn. The water that surrounded the fountain was like plain white screen when the time Aerith was praying for Holy.  
  
"That white materia... it must have fallen from my ribbon when Sephiroth stabbed us, Lisa." She gasped and panicked.  
  
"Eh... where did she go?" Tifa twisted her head but couldn't find me.  
  
I left the place in a hurry and went to the room under the big shell. I dived into the clear waters and retrieved the white materia, instead of the glittering white color; it gleamed in different shades of green. Back at the fountain, Bugenhagen explained to them the white materia was used to pray to the Planet if it's in danger. If it was, the Planet would summon Holy. That was why Aerith left and prayed for him.  
  
"I'm so sorry Aerith, if only I'd figured it out sooner, you wouldn't have left, I couldn't think and...and ..." Cloud paused.  
  
Aerith touched his face full of love and forgiveness, "It's alright, I'm here, that's all that matters,"...  
  
"...and all your efforts didn't go to waste, kak Aerith. You managed to reach the Planet and your materia is glowing in many shades of green," I said while holding out the materia for her to see.  
  
"Then it's true, the white materia would change colors when an ancient has successfully gotten through to the Planet." Bugenhagen stated, "Holy will be summoned and all we could do now is wait."  
  
Under our feet, the ground suddenly began to dance the tango; Diamond Weapon had emerged from the depths nearby and was dawdling towards Midgar!  
  
"Bad news everyone, get on board the Highwind immediately. We have to stop Diamond Weapon from reaching Midgar." Cait Sith ordered us through the PHS.  
  
Sure enough, Diamond Weapon could be seen walking on the surface of the water and going towards Midgar, and the Sister Ray (the canon from Junon was moved to Midgar) was waiting for its prey.  
  
"Stop here at the edge of Midgar!" Cloud shouted to the pilot as we prepared to jump off. Diamond Weapon met us by the shoreline and there we started the battle. He may not be as powerful as Ultimate or Emerald Weapon, but he still packs a mean punch. Regular attacks had at least some affects on him and limit breaks really hit the spot.  
  
"Do you still have enough strength to do one more limit break girls?" I asked Celest, Lynn and Yuffie.  
  
"Yeah sure, but could we hold on after that I don't know." Celest replied.  
  
"We'll just have to try then, let's go." I called at once.  
  
"Galactic... Rain...!" (Lynn's most powerful limit break)  
  
"Ultimate... Rising...!"(Celest's final limit break)  
  
"All Creation..!"(Yuffie's most powerful and final limit break) "Flora... Fauna... Hurricane...!"(My final limit break (sounds weird but is very powerful))  
  
All our limit breaks were called upon together and it seems that it was too much for Diamond to handle. Cloud gave him another whack with his sword and Barret used Catastrophe and Diamond surrendered.  
  
"Yeah... we beat him ... where is he going?" Naz looked at Diamond, puzzled that it still moved towards Midgar.  
  
"He senses dangerous trouble coming from Midgar," Celest gasped as Diamond Weapon shot fireballs at the city.  
  
I don't know what came over me but I flew to Midgar at full speed, "Enima... Don't go...it's too dangerous there... come back!" Barret shouted and Speed together with Lynn flew after me.  
  
I didn't listen and followed my instincts. Hojo had already initiated the Sister Ray and locked on the Crater in the icy area.  
  
"Ready when you are, Reeve," he called to him, "But the Weapon is in the way," he gave an excuse.  
  
"Won't matter, just pull the switch." He commanded.  
  
A lot of energy was sucked by the cannon and the whole of Midgar was veiled in darkness. The Sister Ray was ready to fire and BOOM... it went right through Diamond and managed to break the barrier shielding the Crater in the icy area. But that didn't stop the fireballs that Diamond had released before the laser went through him.  
  
Rufus was in his office when the fireballs collided with Midgar. I flew through the window and grabbed him as a fireball crashed below his office.  
  
"LISA (MARISSA)!!!" Lynn (she calls me Marissa) and Speed shouted when the force of the impact pushed them away. They crashed not far away from the others, whom in turn rushed to their aid.  
  
"Enima... where is she," Aerith asked desperately. She was worried.  
  
"We ... couldn't reach her ...in time, she ...she's..." Jacques said between sobs.  
  
Aerith, Yuffie and Lynn had burst into tears while Tifa and Celest tried their hardest to stop themselves from crying. Naz fell to the ground and froze with tears raining from his eyes; he couldn't accept the fact that his older was gone too soon. Barret was petrified; he acted as if he had lost a daughter. Red XIII howled sadly, Cait Sith joined him. Cid himself couldn't help but feel sad with his mouth open wide. Sam, Cloud and Vincent couldn't believe that I would leave them so soon and realized they had just lost a faithful friend. They were just about to leave for the Highwind when...  
  
"Hey... don't... leave ...me behind...hey!" I shouted with the strength I had left and gasping for air.  
  
"Enima?" Barret blurted out not believing what he saw.  
  
They saw me fly towards them. My clothes were worn, torn and covered in ash. In my arms was the notorious and unconscious President Rufus. To weak to fly any longer, I crashed to the ground exhausted and couldn't feel my limbs.  
  
Barret picked up Rufus; while Jacques lifted me up and brought me aboard. He still had tears flowing from his caring eyes, but these weren't tears of sorrow, but tears of joy. Aerith and Yuffie fussed over me on the Highwind. Tifa and Vincent kept coming in and out to check my status. Naz, Sam, Serena, Siew Mei and Jacques stayed by my side till I got back on my feet. Cloud and Barret kept a watchful eye on Rufus, but like me, he was given treatment till he regained consciousness. When I finally got back on my feet, all were asleep.  
  
"How sweet, but they didn't have to." I whispered silently.  
  
I gave Jacques a peck on the cheek and ruffled Naz's and Serena's hair. Jacques woke up immediately and gladly took me in his arms and tossed me about as he gleamed with joy. Naz and Serena were as overjoyed as he was and rushed out of the room to call the others. With all the commotion, the other two woke up and knocked each other's heads in the process (ooh... that must have hurt).  
  
Tifa, Aerith and Yuffie nearly suffocated me with their hugs, Red XIII rubbed his fuzzy head on my face while I was rested on Jacques's arms , Barret picked me up and tossed me up and down, Vincent and Cid ruffled my hair and Cloud patted my head, "Glad you're back, kiddo." He said.  
  
"Yeah...it's great to be back," I said weakly.  
  
"Landing at the Bone Village in 10 minutes," Cait Sith interrupted the moment.  
  
He really had the knack for bad timing. "Rest up now, save your strength," Vincent said as he tucked me in.  
  
I wasn't a six year old to be tucked like that, but couldn't help if my limbs were still limp.  
  
Even though everyone had left the room, Jacques stayed behind to look after me.  
  
"You had me worried there; I thought you were goner for sure." He said softly.  
  
"Shhh... don't worry... it'll take more than an explosion to stop me." I placed two fingers to his lips.  
  
He took them, rubbed them against his cheek and leaned to kiss my forehead. By the time we landed, I was strong enough to follow them off the Highwind. Rufus was still unconscious at the time. At the Bone Village, we needed to find the key to Sector 5. The guy in charge of it said he lost it in the Bone Village. When the head digger asked where to dig, we said to dig at the entrance of the Bone Village and in front of the head digger's area. It may have taken a few tries but it was worth it. On the Highwind we were surprised to find Rufus awake and strapped on his bed. I guess Cait Sith had something to do with that. He was struggling to break free when Aerith, Tifa, Jacques and I entered the room. Cait Sith was in the room, too.  
  
"Let me go, or I'll report you all for kidnapping and keeping me prisoner." He shouted forcefully at us.  
  
"Hey... be more grateful that you're alive. At least thank Enima for risking her life to save your filthy butt." Tifa fought back and pressed his chest.  
  
"Tsk...Why should I thank a mere child?" He arrogantly swooshed his head.  
  
"WELL! I saved you BECAUSE I couldn't bear to see you or anyone die! Isn't it enough for nearly taking my own life for a power hungry monster like you! To tell you the truth I sensed some good in you and I kind of have a soft spot for you!" It just burst out of me.  
  
Jacques just held me and the other two gasped at my behavior, but this wasn't the first time they'd seen me this way. Rufus was surprised at me and kept quiet. He never knew that anyone would have cared about him or would've been that open before. I was still weak and the effect of losing my patience used up my strength and I fell once more. Jacques caught me and carried me out of the room.  
  
Aerith stopped Tifa's urge to punch Rufus for being so ungrateful and followed her out the room. Rufus just lay there surprised and speechless. In the next room, Jacques laid me in the bed and asked if what I said about liking Rufus was true. I couldn't hide it, and told him it was true.  
  
"But that doesn't mean I like you any less. In fact I like you even more." I smiled at him and he smiled back.  
  
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	20. Rufus

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters.  
  
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Else where, Cloud and Aerith were wondering if Rufus could be trusted.  
  
"If Enima senses good in him, there may be hope that he'd join us or call of his troops." Aerith told him  
  
. "But we can't be too sure. He's our enemy and all of us know it," he replied firmly.  
  
"Then we'll just have to wait and see. I know we have limited time now, but we have to know what he thinks." Vincent and Tifa had appeared over hearing their conversation.  
  
"He's right in some way, but like you said we can't be too sure." Tifa added.  
  
"In the mean time, we'll investigate the crater. Who knows what the blast did to it." Cloud sighed.  
  
"Yes, that would be the best, right now. If the blast was strong enough to go through Diamond Weapon, it might've been strong enough to break through the barrier." Vincent stated.  
  
"Cait Sith...set course for the crater right away." Cloud ordered.  
  
"I'm Already on it... over and out." He confirmed.  
  
The Highwind flew above the crater. Cloud called for a meeting at the bridge and all needed to be there, including Rufus. At the bridge, Red XIII kept an eye on Rufus all through the meeting.  
  
"Looks like the Sister Ray's blast had broken away the barrier. It may seem that we'll be meeting the end and Sephiroth sooner than we think. We'll need to prepare for the worst as it may pop out of nowhere and we don't want to be kissing their feet now, would we?" he faced everyone.  
  
They shook their heads. "We have to be strong, fast and most of all have faith in ourselves. Never fall when anyone doubts you. That is all for now." He concluded.  
  
I left the bridge with Serena, Siew Mei and Aerith. Red escorted Rufus back to his 'room', Cloud and Vincent stayed on the bridge with Barret, Cid and Cait Sith, Tifa and Yuffie went up deck to see the sights with Bugenhagen and Naz , Jacques and Sam were in the engine room catching up on old times. I heard from Red that Rufus called for me.  
  
"What does he want with you?" Serena asked sensing something bad.  
  
"What ever it is, I'll handle it and will holler when anything happens." I answered seriously.  
  
Followed Red to the room and there he was waiting. "Please leave us," he asked Red to leave the room.  
  
"It's ok, I'll call when I need you, wait for me outside," I assured him and gave him a hug.  
  
He could never resist my hugs. Red rubbed his head on me and left. As soon as he left, Rufus walked towards me. I dodged and asked what he wanted. He didn't answer but continued to come after me.  
  
I dropped onto the chair, only then he stopped and asked, "How and why did you save me?" "Like I said, I didn't want to see you dead no matter how ruthless you were. Everyone has the right to live no matter what punishment they receive. Yours was death but you didn't arrest Aerith when she fainted and let me and Speed stay with her as you took the others away. There was good in you." I answered.  
  
He lowered his head, he blushed and faced me. "I heard from Red XIII and Reeve that you could sing... would you... sing a song for me?" He asked bashfully.  
  
"Huh? That was a very weird request from a guy like him, but what the heck." I thought to myself and answered, "Alright."  
  
I sang the theme song from the anime series 'Ayashi no Ceres', Scarlet. He was intrigued with the sound of my voice so was Red waiting outside. He didn't know I could sing well. Rufus felt his heart melt; it was obvious he never felt this emotion before. His life was full of darkness, he may not have felt any love from his father either or anyone.  
  
His life is as enigmatic as Vincent's, but not as lonely. I got up to leave, he pulled my hand.  
  
"Please let go, I've things to do." I said without looking at him.  
  
He pulled it still, what he wanted was unknown and I didn't want to know.  
  
Please don't leave, I don't want you to. Stay with me, please. I've never felt this way before." He pleaded, strange thing for him to do.  
  
"You know I can't do that. I'm involved with Speed; if that is the answer you seek." Still facing the door, I didn't look at him.  
  
He let go, only then I faced him. I guess that was the first time someone had rejected him, he returned to the bed.  
  
I gave him a peck on the forehead before heading out. "Well done, Enima, you sing very well." Red praised me at the door.  
  
"That's a little too much praise for me Red," I said while stroking his back, "Besides, that wasn't my best voice," I continued cheekily.  
  
He just smiled and followed me to the bridge. I whispered to Cait sith, my wish to visit the sectors in Midgar.  
  
Cait Sith asked Cloud and he granted my wish. I flew down with Siew Mei and Aerith. Rufus and Jacques glanced out the window at us, but didn't follow.  
  
"It seems like forever since we last came here." Aerith sighed.  
  
"I agree." I added.  
  
We went in the church and found kids taking care of the flowers. We didn't want to scare the kids, so we let them be. Visited Aerith's house, Elmyra and Marlene weren't there. Where Reeve was keeping them was unknown. Hope they're alright.  
  
"Let's go to the Wall Market, there should be a few interesting things there now." I suggested.  
  
In the item shop, the gun that shot us every time we tapped on the computer screen didn't shoot us. Instead the computer gave us excess to Tifa's best weapon, Premium Heart. Even in the weapon shop, the guy that sold us the batteries sold us a 'sneak glove' and just because we were 'nice' girls, he gave us a discount.  
  
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	21. Final visit to Midgar

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters.  
  
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Back on the Highwind everyone was getting ready to crash Section 8. Even Rufus was dragged along. Cloud said he may be of some use. On the platform, we gathered. Cloud instructed us to jump together. Safely we landed in Sector 8, and as usual, we were divided into groups. Of course Sam and Siew Mei couldn't be separated, so was Cloud and Aerith and Vincent with Tifa. Speed wouldn't go with anyone else but me or Naz. Yuffie didn't mind to go with anyone. Rufus had to be left with either Red or Cait sith as Barret might pulverize him. It wasn't really that tough to divide us but everyone had their favorites.  
  
We were sent all over the place, some up and down the ladder, some down the pipes and some through air vents. This was to make sure we weren't easy to locate or to follow. We went all over the place and were to meet back at the underground railway. There were monsters crawling everywhere.  
  
"Shall we go with the flow?" I asked Speed.  
  
"Yes, been a little rusty lately." He answered confidently. We were quite a team, for just two people. What are our feelings towards each other I wonder? All of us reached the meeting place together in good time. Nothing had changed.  
  
"You again...!" we heard from behind us.  
  
"The Turks!" we shouted together.  
  
"Humph... Surprised to see us? How thoughtful..." Reno snickered.  
  
"We're not here to harm you or anything, just passing through." Rude assured.  
  
"But if it's a fight you want, we're up for a last one." Elena came forth.  
  
"Bring it on." I heard my brother call from behind me.  
  
"If you insist..." Reno got into position.  
  
It was fun while it lasted. They gave it their all and so did we, though a few stayed out as we had more fun than the others. The ones who fought were, Celest, Lynn, Sam, Cait Sith, Cid and Barret. Since we handled more than they did, might as well let them have fun for once.  
  
(Not long afterwards)  
  
"That's all folks, hope you enjoyed our last fight together and here are a few gifts for you." Reno said as he tossed a zeidrich, a Minerva bracelet and a toughness ring to us.  
  
These were powerful accessories and armor, "that was thoughtful of them."  
  
Aerith said to herself. They were about to leave when they saw...  
  
"President Rufus, what are you doing with them?" Rude asked abruptly.  
  
"Well..." he moved towards me and put his hand on my shoulder, "This lovely young girl rescued me from the tower when Diamond weapon attacked. She went through all the trouble and dangers just to rescue a 'monster' like me."  
  
Reno scratched his head and ruffled my hair. Man... you messed up my hair. I don't think I'd like to get any ruffles in the hair from him again.  
  
"Thanks a lot for saving our president, but I'm afraid you'll be surprised that 'Gya ha, ha' (Scarlet) and 'Mua ha, ha' (Heidegger) have taken command upon your (facing Rufus) 'death', sir" he thanked and informed us.  
  
Those two would have done anything to take command and we learned from Cait Sith, Reeve was taken into custody. But that didn't stop him from controlling the toy cat to help us.  
  
"We'd best go now, see ya'll next time." Reno said as he and the other two waved goodbye.  
  
We bid them goodbye and continued through the old railroad tunnels, ladders and shafts. Long time no see, Midgar. The main building was still standing but was damaged from the fireballs (the top bit anyway).  
  
"Alright let's split up. We'll cover more ground that way." Barret suggested but sadly he had to go up the stairs, poor guy, to get Red XIII's second best weapon.  
  
Of course, he hiked with Tifa, Vincent and Red but that really doesn't make it any easier for him. Speed, Grey Fox, Yuffie and I went level by level. We raided the item store for supplies as it was abandoned anyway. Sam, Lynn and Celest got the much needed item, Cid's Grow Lance, from the 63rd floor. Cait Sith, Cid, Cloud and Aerith got the items from the 64th floor.  
  
On the streets, we reunited and planned how to destroy the Sister Ray for good. Rufus led the way, but we were stopped by Proud Clad, an unknown person. He wouldn't let us pass, not without a fight. Not even Rufus could talk him into letting us pass. There wasn't much talk, but there was more action. "Don't hit him with magic, he's immune to it. I'm not sure about summoning spells, but hit him with regular but powerful attacks." I called to everyone.  
  
Rufus wanted so much to be by my side, he too joined the excitement. The attacks weren't doing really serious damage to Proud Clad, but even so, they were effective.  
  
"POUR IT ON!" We heard Barret shout as he sent a series of bullets.  
  
Just then I thought I saw someone in the shadows shooting bolts (arrows for crossbows). Vaguely the shadows showed the figure of a woman. Couldn't tell the age from where I stood but chose not to investigate till we outwitted this enemy. Clad suddenly kneeled on his knees.  
  
Thinking he was about to fall in defeat we ceased fire slightly. Boy... we were fooled. He was actually getting ready for his major attack which did serious damage to all of us. All this just because we let our guard down, we had to really pull it together in order to defeat him. Cloud suggested we use our last strength to blast it with our most powerful limit breaks (not including Rufus) and hope it would fall. I nodded to him and the others followed.  
  
Before that Aerith cast Planet Protector on all of us to protect us. It made us invincible for a limited time. Sadly we were very close to defeating him. Even our all wasn't enough, we were lucky we still had the barrier on us, if not we'd be toast. From the shadows, the mystery person sent deadly attacks to Proud Clad and to our surprise he let out a cry of defeat!  
  
He screamed and vanished into thin air, just like that. All fell to the ground panting.  
  
The mystery person was about to leave but before she did I called for her, "Wait ... don't go, we never had the chance to thank you, yet." She stood there in a surprised pose as if she recognized my voice.  
  
She stepped into the light and asked me something, "Lisa, sayang is that really... you?" she asked as she looked down at me.  
  
I looked up and saw the familiar features except for the dark orange hair and fairer skin, all in all she was, "Auntie Aisyah?" my mouth fell open.  
  
It was her but how could she have fallen into a mess like this? "Yes, sayang it's your Auntie Aisyah. Oh and Nazrin's here, too. But how did you get caught up in this world?" she continued her questions.  
  
"Long story, but the question is, how did you get here and how did you adapt to this place so fast?" I asked her  
  
"Well... remember a few months back when you visited me in Pulau Pinang? You told me of all your favorite video games and fantasies and hope they'll come true. Not long afterwards, I found myself thinking about the adventures I'd go on like in the movies. Like the parts Dato' Michelle Yeoh always has, being the heroine. One night, when I slept I found myself in darkness and a few characters from the video games you showed me appeared and gave me this new look, these weapons and these abilities. They even told me about you but only vaguely. So, here I am with one of my favorites nieces." She explained thoroughly.  
  
I couldn't believe my ears, my mom's cousin; my aunt is really here, helping me. At least I have something like a mom here with me. She gave me and Naz a hug before we introduced her to the gang who were getting suspicious. She even thought of Jacques as family, being my best friend and being in the same town.  
  
It was a little weird to see my aunt here. Usually it'll just be me, my brother, my friends and my cousins. Now I wish that this mission would end sooner... NO! I won't think this way, it's not good. Naz won't want me to think this way; neither will Serena, Siew Mei, Sam and Jacques. Cloud ordered us to move on. At the Sister Ray's platform we found Barret's final weapon, Missing Score. The controls on the Sister Ray were not as complicated as we thought. Naz, Sam and Cid got busy trying to dismantle it when Hojo appeared and fought us with his three forms, his normal form, his Heretic form and his Lifeform self.  
  
"We'll cover you, don't lose your concentration!" Cloud said to them and shouted his battle cry.  
  
We made sure nothing got passed us while they worked on the Sister Ray. The hardest of all Hojo's forms was Heretic Hojo, as he could regenerate his limbs. He was powerful and yet outnumbered as there were only three of him and more of us. Outnumbered he may be, but what made him powerful was unknown. What this mad scientist did to himself was unbelievable and scary. This time we take no chances and get rid of him once and for all.  
  
"Don't let your guards down, he may wear us out but never give up!" Cloud shouted to everyone.  
  
He was more determined than before. To ease things a little, Aerith cast Great Gospel and Planet Protector on all of us. At least he won't be able to touch us for a while.  
  
From the control panels, Naz shouted, "There... we're done and coming to the rescue!" and they did, just in time. Hojo had turned into his Lifeform self and was about to start attacking again.  
  
We really made his life a misery, when all of us gathered and our attacks kept coming in odd numbers.  
  
"No..." he screamed as he couldn't cope with all the attacks and finally turned to dust.  
  
"It's not over, yet. We better get out of here, the Sister Ray is about to blow!" Sam shouted in warning.  
  
It was a rush against time; we needed to escape to the Highwind before it blew. The place exploded under us bringing the whole sector 8 with it. Luckily there weren't any people living there and all the other sectors weren't affected by the blast. From the Highwind, we watched the Sister Ray break down and become useless. That would keep the Planet safe for a while longer. We would rejoice, but the battle of the Planet isn't over, not just yet.  
  
(End of Chapter 2)  
  
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	22. Ultimate Weapon's last stand

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters.  
  
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(Chapter 3)  
  
There's no going back to Midgar, now, for there was no need to. What matters now is getting prepared for the worst that's yet to come, which is the Final Battle with Sephiroth. Not to forget, Ultimate Weapon, Ruby Weapon, Red XIII's final weapon and a few minor things. On the Highwind, Auntie Aisyah's breath was taken away as she had never seen how lovely the view was from the Highwind. Jacques and I joined her. Aerith, Tifa, Cloud, Vincent, Cid and Cait Sith remained on the bridge. Naz was taking care of Yuffie as she had gotten airsick again. Sam and Siew Mei were chatting away. Serena and Red were keeping an eye on Rufus and Barret was checking on the chocobo.  
  
We had Spark, one of the gold chocobos with us. Barret whispered to it, that Marlene would love Spark and Rain as much as he does. Even Auntie Aisyah or Falcon was amazed at the sight of them. Auntie Aisyah was a huntress and a dancer. She had the looks, the figure and everything. Some may be deceived by her appearance but everyone makes mistakes. Falcon as a nickname suited her fine. She used a crossbow with unlimited bolts and daggers. I thought she was cool. It's nice for once to have an aunt who's as adventurous and cool like Michelle Yeoh. I really miss my mom, now. She's cool, too. She taught me to bake, scuba dive and all sorts of things. Stop it Lisa, the more you think of it the more you worry! I slapped myself hard. Speed was surprised at my behavior and held me close to his chest. Auntie Aisyah noticed this and smiled thinking I had finally found a boyfriend. She allowed him to hold me and didn't disturb us. She knew there were other couples on board and knew what was going on with Naz and Yuffie. Hopefully she won't tell mom or dad before we do. That night was my turn to watch Rufus in the room. Speed and Red didn't want to leave me there alone. I assured them that I would be fine. Even Naz and Yuffie didn't like the idea of me watching him alone.  
  
"Don't worry... when he does something unexpected I'll holler for you." I gave them a thumb up.  
  
Cloud suggested that Red and Falcon stood watch at the door. I agreed to that to make sure the others didn't worry. But it would take more than that to assure Speed. I gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek, before entering the room. Rufus was already asleep when I went in.  
  
"This would be a cinch," I thought.  
  
There were only a few hours left in the night and he was knocked out. At least I may not have to worry about anything, or so I thought. I sat there beside the bed and read the comics I conjured up from my backpack. Suddenly, he woke up and saw me there beside him. He then requested me to sing a lullaby for him.  
  
"What a baby." I whispered. I sang the theme song for FF9 (Final Fantasy IX) Melodies of Life, and was surprised that he wasn't dozing off. Usually when I sing this particular song, anyone would fall asleep instantly. He just stared at me, for some reason I could tell what he was thinking but decided to take matters into my own hands. If I'm going to be a good ninja, I'll have to handle things on my own.  
  
"What do you want, Rufus?" I asked hiding my fear (I had fears of encountering people on my own).  
  
"I want to be with you." he answered.  
  
"I don't think so; didn't you hear me the first time? I'm with Speed," I countered his wish.  
  
From the other room, Speed or Jacques woke up suddenly and sensed that something was wrong. Red woke too, and waited for Speed. Together they banged open the door to find Rufus pinning me to the wall and trying to kiss me. Jacques pulled him off me and threw him to the bed. He held me tight and Red barked at Rufus. I was in shock and my heart was beating so fast like I had just ran a 5km cross-country run. But a question kept ringing in my head.  
  
"Why choose me of all the other girls on board?" Cloud and Aerith heard about what happened and asked if he did anything to upset me.  
  
I answered them no, but then to Aerith, I asked her why didn't he do this with the other girls? Why was it me? She answered simply, and said it was me who saved him, not the others. The answer was right in front of me the whole time, Must have ignored it when Falcon arrived. This isn't a time to worry about these things, Auntie Aisyah told me. Indeed it wasn't, and we had bigger fish to fry. Anyway, we split up to two large groups. Some went to the Bone Village to excavate a few items and the rest went to Cosmo Canyon. As someone needed a flying lesson, Auntie Aisyah and I flew to Cosmo Canyon. It seems that she wasn't used to being off the ground, even with a safe jet pack on her back. Everything was so far smooth sailing on the way to Cosmo Canyon, but Falcon had a crash course landing when we arrived at the Cosmo Candle. She needs a little more practice.  
  
Cloud, Red XIII, Barret, Aerith, Falcon and I gathered around the Cosmo Candle and waited for Bugenhagen to arrive. He came and gave us a lecture on how Red has grown strong. He even said Red would've made his father Seto, proud. With that he gave Red his most powerful and final weapon, Limited Moon. It was a glorious day for Red and all were proud of him.  
  
At the Bone Village, the others had gathered a lot of goods which included the W-item materia, a few potions, phoenix downs and other cool stuff like weapons we missed along the way.  
  
Phew... what a haul, didn't think we'd get this much stuff and especially the W-item materia." Naz said as he wiped sweat from his forehead.  
  
Everyone agreed and even Rufus was getting the hang of being a 'good guy'. He helped with the digging and enjoyed it.  
  
"Hah ha... I didn't think digging would be fun." He laughed.  
  
Everyone joined him. "Maybe he's finally become a better person," Naz whispered to Vincent.  
  
Vincent nodded and smiled. Cloud and Barret called for a meeting on the bridge.  
  
"It's time for the Ultimate Weapon hunt. We know he's supposed to be the one protectin' the Planet and all. But we don't want him wiping out the whole human population. That's why we have to stop him once and for all." Barret announced, loud and clear.  
  
Some were shocked at the statement, but logically it made sense. Basically, the weapons were created to protect the Planet, but wiping out the entire population would be unfair as not all were bad. But all the same, I pitied Weapon. He was huge, ferocious and monstrous on the outside, but inside he and his 'brothers' and 'sister' are peaceful and are there to protect and destroy. After their deeds are done they are put back to sleep till other crisis appear. Aerith herself felt sorry for the Weapons but knew there was no other way.  
  
"Alright...! Let's start the chase!" Cloud commanded.  
  
The head pilot, understood and flew over to Ultimate Weapon's first haunting place, the crater near Junon. He was surprised to see us and fought us gloriously. He was powerful but fled after tasting our strength. We chase him all over the place, from the crater to finally Cosmo Canyon. There all the villagers poked there heads out of their homes to watch our fight. Ultimate was tired of fleeing as he had nowhere else to run. No matter where he 'ran' we were always hot on his tail.  
  
"I'm sorry Ultimate, but we've no choice but to defeat you," I whispered, and it just so happens that Aerith and I felt and thought the same way.  
  
Ultimate released his special 'Shadow Flare' attack which did serious offensive damage on all of us. It did a lot of damage, but it was worth the risk as Cloud's, Vincent's and Cid's enemy skills materia learned that skill and used it against him with Knights of the Round summoning spell. A tear from Aerith's eyes fell when the two spells were cast. After a blinding light show and great blast, Ultimate was gone, forever. We should be glad but we weren't but knew it had to be done. He left us with many 'parting' gifts, which included a Cursed Ring, a Reflect Ring and Cloud's Ultima Weapon.  
  
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	23. Final Battle

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters.  
  
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The blast was so great, that the after effects were endless. It shook the Cosmo Canyon and opened a path to the lucrative Ancient Forest. We could've gotten there on Thowra, Shane and Meg, but decided to chase Ultimate first. The Ancient Forest was an ancient and exciting place to be. It was said to hold a few cool items and fun puzzles to play. It would be hard to get through when moving in large groups, so we divided ourselves evenly and split to get through several places. But the disgusting part of the forest was that we needed to catch bugs and frogs to feed and use when crossing through several parts.  
  
The thought of it was icky, but what have we got to loose? Each group managed to gather at least 3 bugs and frogs each, enough to get through the obstacles we were assigned to. When we left the magical Ancient Forest, we didn't leave empty handed. There we found Cid's Scimitar, Cloud's Apocalypse sword, the Tupon summoning materia, a Minerva band armlet and a Slash-all materia. Overall, the forest was nice to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there. Luckily we didn't have Rufus with us, or he'd be complaining like crazy and driving us 'nuts'. Once that was over, we had to prepare for the main event... entering the crater. We never wasted any precious time and lived the night to the fullest.  
  
Thinking the night may be the last, Jacques kissed me passionately and never wanted to let go. Under the Highwind, Tifa and Cloud had a conversation. It wasn't long as Vincent came by and he wanted some private time with Tifa. As soon as Cloud left them, they were smooching endlessly and slept in each other's arms. Naz and Yuffie were together on the deck. Cid and Cait Sith were making sure the Highwind was in good shape, Red was staring into the horizon thinking of his heroic parents and wondering if we'll live through this. Cloud and Aerith were of course 'busy' and didn't want to be parted for the moment, this would be the last night before the Final encounter. They wanted to relish their last moments together, in fact so did everyone else. Sadly Rufus was left without anyone, and got rather jealous when he saw Speed and I together.  
  
Falcon was helping Barret keep the weapons in right order and really didn't pay attention to what the 'couples' were doing. It seems the next morning when Vincent and Tifa arrived at the bridge, she was very embarrassed as Cid and a few others revealed that they saw her and Vincent having their 'private' time. She turned bright red, but lucky for her, Vincent held her and he too, was quite embarrassed. We laughed at them in a teasing way, but not for long as we didn't want to humiliate them more. But before we stopped laughing the two love birds joined in., as there wasn't really anything to be embarrassed about. They're in love, so what?  
  
The Highwind was parked just at the entrance of the Crater. The entrance resembled a spiral staircase, only there were no stairs but rocky and steep paths. As expected, the place was swarming with monsters. It was a good thing, that Falcon and Barret examined and repaired the weapons the night before. The monsters were great and full of fight. The even had skills we could use to fight the final battle. The crater was deep and dark. We emerged through a rocky doorway and found no other way down than climbing. For me and my companions, we flew down and guided them on the way down. For a place for a last battle, there were many treasures laid out for us.  
  
We split in opposite directions to retrieve them all. The next area was called the Right route. It had so many twists and turns some of us became dizzy just walking down. The monsters that roamed here were the Death Dealers, Dragon Zombies, Molbors, Parasites and Pollensalitas. All had valuable skills that the enemy-skill materias could use and we encountered all. It was a coincidence as when they attacked; they used the skills and fell when we used the skills against them. The next areas were the Left/Up route and Left/Down route. In the Left/Up route, the enemies may look small and harmless, but could really pack a mean punch. Ouch... anyone who underestimates them is in for a big surprise.  
  
Again we were divided into groups and were to meet at the Left/Down route near the Lifestream falls. At the Left/Down route, the enemies here were ugly and annoying. As we crossed their paths one too many times we easily got bored of fighting them. In the Lifestream falls, Celest and Lynn found a Super Enemy-All materia. As they found it, Cloud allowed them to keep it. Too bad there was only one of the materia and two of them. Then I remembered mine and Naz's skill.  
  
"Lynn, could I see the materia?" I asked her. She passed it to me and I called Naz over.  
  
"Let's do it one last time, lil' bro." I said to him.  
  
He nodded and in our hands the materia glowed brightly and a few seconds later, there were two materias instead of one.  
  
"There you go; at least both of you have awesome power." I smiled. They thanked us.  
  
We were more than happy to make it for them. The Left/Down route led to the Final Confrontation area. The area was swarming with Dragon Zombies, Iron Giants and Ahrimans. In the area, the road to Sephiroth was spirally and godly. Before taking a step into the point of no return, we forced faith into ourselves and Cloud split us for the last time. He said it would be easier to hit the enemy.  
  
"Well, this is it, no turning back now. Have faith in yourselves as in the darkest moments faith and heart are our lights." He looked around at us and all we could do was listen to his advice. It was for the best and may be the last.  
  
It wasn't long before we had to encounter the first boss. He was invincible and wore us out but Cloud's words kept our guards up. Quote Phil from Disney's Hercules "No, no, no, Giving up is for rookies." WE weren't rookies and we won't be defeated.  
  
The boss may wear us out, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't do the same. Cloud, Aerith, Cid, Barret and Sam had cast four summoning spells at once, which were Leviathan, Bahamut Zero, Alexander and Knights of the Round. These were either level 4 or mastered. The impact had him slowed down and shrunk him to dust. The next was the big cheese, Sephiroth. He indeed was one with the Lifestream and one with his mother Jenova. Kujah and Evil Ansem were with him too. That made it harder for us to reach him. From what I remember, they were the most powerful bosses in their realms, but not as powerful or power crazed as Sephiroth. It was strange for them to appear only now and not before we had to battle with Mr. Misunderstood.  
  
We were worn out when we had to battle him. Cloud and Vincent didn't want to show how weak we were and charged at them, Barret sent a series of gunshots at Sephiroth covering the two. Not wanting to be left behind, Falcon and I showered them with elemental arrows and bolts. Aerith protected all of us with Planet Protector and Red cast Reflect magic on us to enable the attacks which were sent to us, given back with love.  
  
Sam used his most powerful limit break "Aftershock" which did some damage and paralyzed the trio for a limited time. Lynn even sent Chocobo/Mog on them which increased the penalization effect. Kujah and Evil Ansem were a piece of cake, but Sephiroth was another story.  
  
The two vanished as soon as we sent limit breaks on them repeatedly. After their deafening screams, they deteriorated and vanished.  
  
"This cannot be, I'm the most powerful and superior being cannot be outwitted by mere mortals!" He screamed.  
  
While the attacks rained on him, my out world comrades corrected him; "Correction, we aren't mortals!" together we cried and sent many deathblows on him. He screamed once more, but it was more deafening than before. A strong force overwhelmed the battle ground and he disappeared, but did we win?  
  
The walls were caving in and we needed to get out right away. But something happened to Cloud, he had vanished into thin air. "CLOUD....!" Aerith shouted and refused to leave without him.  
  
"Then I'll stay with you kak, I can fly us out of here when he returns" I told her. She smiled while the others scrambled out and started to pray.  
  
"Where am I?" Cloud asked himself.  
  
He was falling through a stream of air. Where was he going he didn't know? There were spirals of colors and wind. At the end of the tunnel was none other than...  
  
"Sephiroth..!" Cloud heard himself shout.  
  
He looked different. He was half naked and where his feet were, there were four wings spread out and he floated in the air. He even had his right hand replaced with a dark wing. Behind him were rings and he wasn't going let him go without a fight. He was crazed by the fact that he was all powerful, but what he had lost long ago was... a heart. Sephiroth used many deadly attacks on Cloud and somehow he managed to survive. He even managed to stay focused, though he was tired. His case was somewhat like Dyne but his is worse. Ever since the incident in Nibelheim, he had never been himself and his soul when he died only focused on one thing, the Promised Land.  
  
"You will never find it, as it is entirely out of your reach!" Cloud shouted when he used Knights of the Round and his final limit break, Omnislash. But Sephiroth was still 'standing'. He gave it his all this time and his Omnislash did triple the damage and Sephiroth screamed once again for the last time.  
  
It proves that being a god isn't everything as there may be others to overthrow you. He became one with the air and was so fine that he couldn't be seen. Cloud was left alone in the darkness. The mission was a success and the world would be at peace, at last. Suddenly, glittering green light circled around him and a hand reached out to him.  
  
He reached for it and slowly, the face and body were unclouded to reveal Aerith, his angel, reaching out to him. We needed to escape as the walls were caving in. He grabbed hold of her and I helped Aerith steady herself while pulling Cloud up. Above, the others made it to the Highwind and Cid was forcing the engine to start but it was stubborn for a moment. It didn't start until someone kicked the controls. They shouted for us to hurry and wanted to send us a ladder, but there wasn't any need to as I could fly them out.  
  
"Hang on folks, we're in for a rough ride," I said sarcastically.  
  
The two lovers didn't like the sound of it but they had no choice but to hang on tight. As the whole Crater was caving in, I had a hard time dodging the large chunks of rock and getting through thin spaces as I had passengers with me. When we caught up to the Highwind, I crash landed as it wasn't an easy job getting through tight areas and dodging humongous chunks of rock. From the bridge we watched helplessly as the Meteor got closer to Earth. Even if we succeeded in defeating Sephiroth, we still never found a way to stop the Meteor from colliding into the Earth. Everyone on the Planet watched helplessly as the End came near.  
  
But... when we thought and felt that all hope was lost, streaks of green lights sprouted from the Earth and multiplied by the dozen. It seems that Aerith's act to get in touch with the Planet worked and the green streaks were from the Lifestream. It was Holy. We watched as more and more of the tornadoes of green emerged from the Earth and became one to eliminate the Meteor and saving the much loved Planet. The sight of it was magnificent. As one, the bundle of gleaming green light devoured the Meteor and making way for a bright new dawn.  
  
The Meteor was no more and the Planet was saved. All on board the Highwind rejoiced as we have saved the Planet. All over, whether they were humans or beasts, they shared our joy. For short, our mission to save the Planet had succeeded and from dwelling in darkness all this while, we made way for a bright sunny day. Finally after so long, the Planet was at peace. All resources had returned to normal, and instead of smoke and dust, all was clean and clear. But even though it was a glorious moment to be shared, the use of my comrades and I have somewhat come to an end. Sooner or later, Wakka, Squall and Lulu will call and send us back home, to where we belong.  
  
(End of Chapter 3)  
  
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	24. Goodbye

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Final Fantasy characters.

* * *

**(Epilogue (a rather long one))**

AH... Yes there was peace on Earth now and like most people say, 'Life goes on'.

As soon as the disaster had passed, the team had gone their separate ways (sort of). Cloud and Aerith had moved to the Forgotten City. Jacques/Speed and I moved with them. Naz and Yuffie stayed in Wutai where Yuffie had to take over the 5 level Pagoda.

Barret and Marlene became caretakers at Cloud's villa at Costa del Sol and Elmyra moved in with them and served as a babysitter to Marlene. Red of course went back to Cosmo Canyon with Bugenhagen.

He was to be the Guardian Cosmo Canyon to replace his father Seto. Vincent and Tifa moved into the old Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim but before they did, everyone pitched in to 'cleansing' it.

We had to drive all the monsters away and we found out the source was the old reactor in the mountain. We weren't quite sure how the two were connected, but might as well nip the bud before it blooms.

No rock was left unturned in the mansion and made sure no monster was left to roam in it. The mansion transformed dramatically, from freaky old dark and gloomy, to good ol' bright and happy.

Cait Sith/Reeve stayed on the Highwind with Cid whom decided to live on it with Shera, but stayed in the area around Rocket Town. Sam and the girls stayed in Kalm for the mean time and took part time jobs in the shops.

Rufus, he stayed with us in the Forgotten City, though Speed and Cloud disapproved it but gave in to me and Aerith. Maybe it was because Auntie Aisyah decided to stay with us, too.

He needed a place to stay before Midgar was fully rebuilt. But there was a time where all of us got together. It was for another date event at the Gold Saucer and this time Naz and Yuffie were the main characters in the play at the Event square.

Both were tumbling over their lines and the play became a comedy. All laughed and the producer was thrilled as it gave him new ideas on future plays.

The two main love birds went on the gondola again and after that, invited me and Speed onto the shooting coaster. It was fun going on the shooting coaster and once again we beat the highest score.

The others were either relaxing at the haunted inn or gambling at the chocobo square. When Jacques and I arrived back at the inn, Cloud and Aerith hadn't returned yet. We wondered where they, but I had a feeling I knew where they were.

They were at the gondola again and by the time we reached them they were asleep in each others arms.

Jacques and Naz wanted to wake them but I told them not to disturb as they looked so sweet together like that smile. This last night was a night to remember for all of us, before it was time for us to go home.

"Sigh...I would really miss this world." I sighed.

Some times while we lived at the Forgotten City, Cloud and Aerith would disappear to the sleeping forest or the underwater dome and won't come back till morning, I wonder why?

A few weeks later, in Aerith's church in Midgar, there was a triple wedding. The blushing brides were Aerith, Tifa and Shera and the handsome grooms were Cloud, Vincent and Cid. All looked beautiful and handsome during that day.

The bride's maids were Yuffie and Serena and Marlene was the most adorable flower girl everyone had ever seen.

Naz and Reeve were the best men, Barret and Red XIII gave the brides away, Rude was the ring bearer, Reno, Jacques and Tseng were the ushers Elena was the photographer, and Siew Mei and I were the wedding planners.

Rufus was really helpful as he handled the funds. That was certainly sweet of him.

I was also the wedding singer, though I had to bring out a CD player and my own songs for that day as they didn't know the songs I knew. Auntie Aisyah was in charge of the dresses, tuxedoes and bouquets.

She even helped Siew Mei pick the decorations. Bugenhagen was the priest, being the wisest of all the people we knew.

When all the guests have been seated, Bugenhagen started the ceremony. When Barret and Red brought the brides down the aisle, I couldn't help but laugh softly as I though Red looked a little funny but good wearing the top of a tuxedo.

The girls wore white silk gowns and roses in white, red and pink in their hair. The bouquets were of a variation of flowers from roses to tulips.

The flower girl wore a soft pink frilly dress and the brides' maids wore glittering gentle blue dresses and each held a small bouquet of daisies and primroses.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the union of these three lovely couples." Elmyra, Siew Mei and I smiled in delight.

Sam was clapping continuously with a few other guests. Shera blushed as she had never seen so many people before.

Vincent nearly became a tomato again and Cid was getting agitated as he wasn't fond of being stared at. Cloud smiled softly at Aerith and she smiled back. Tifa giggled quietly at Vincent and caught hold of his hand.

Bugen continued, "Do you, Cloud Strife, Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind take these women for your lovely wedded wives, to have and hold in fitness and in health till death do you part?"

They turned to their brides and said, "I do."

Bugen then turned to the lovely brides and asked, "Do you, Aerith Gainsborough, Tifa Lockhart and Shera Sanza (don't really know her full name (it wasn't stated)) take these men as your husbands, to have and hold in fitness and in health till death do you part?"

They faced their grooms, smiled and said, "I do." Shera blushed, and Cid could feel steam rushing out from his white tuxedo.

Cloud and Aerith continued to admire each other; Tifa and Vincent just smiled with happiness brightening their eyes. None could believe that Tifa and Vincent would be together, but they did and everyone accepted them.

"You may now exchange the rings which represents the bond between you. May your love forever last," he grinned at them.

He seemed to enjoy happy endings. Rude was a little bashful when he presented the rings to them as he tripped on a loose floorboard. But overall he was lucky that none of the rings left their places on the cushion.

In fact, the six of them were nervous themselves when the rings were exchanged. Vincent glowed bright red, steam could be seen rising up from Cid's tuxedo, Cloud's bow tie kept getting out of place, Shera kept blushing, Tifa kept looking at her bouquet and Aerith held her breathe.

"Now, if anyone objects the unions of these loving couples please speak now or forever hold their peace." Some may have given it a thought but decided not to.

Rude had always liked Tifa and Tseng had always liked Aerith but they themselves would want them to be happy. Tseng had found out what feelings Elena had for him and accepted her.

Noticing no one had any objections to the marriages, Bugen announced, "Without further delay, I declare you men and wives, you may now kiss the brides."

He didn't have to tell them twice as they have been waiting for him to announce it.

The grooms removed the veils and passionately kissed their brides. All and I mean all stood up and applauded. I could see the happiness from Elmyra's face as she cried tears of joy for Aerith had finally found a soul mate.

Marlene joined in the happiness by throwing left over flower petals up in the air and at the newly weds, who were running hand in hand out the church.

The whole area was decorated accordingly and there was a special stage put up for the infamous bouquet toss and for the wedding singers to sing.

All the girls gathered around the stage as Shera, Tifa and Aerith turned to toss their bouquets.

"Better get ready girls as you'll never get another chance." Tifa laughed.

For the fun of it, Lynn and I joined in even though it was against my religion. "There they go...!" the three brides yelled together.

All were rushing for the bouquets. Tifa's arm was strong as her bouquet flew right into my arms at the very far end of the crowd.

Aerith's bouquet had hit Barret on the head and dropped gently into Elmyra's arms not far away from the stage.

This was unexpected thing for her as she had already been married and didn't think she was young enough to marry again.

So far one didn't think so, Barret thought she was perfect. Marlene needed a mother and Elmyra needed a husband.

Marlene agreed with the idea of her dad marrying Elmyra and she cared a lot about her, too. Elmyra herself couldn't get enough of Marlene.

They looked sweet togethergiggle. The last bouquet landed on Elena's lap as she sat on a chair opposite from where I was standing.

She was just taking a rest and the bouquet just fell there. She jumped up like a spring and stared at it in awe. Tseng went up to her, wrapped his hand around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder.

She faced him, and hung close to his chest. Unlike everyone else, I was shocked to have caught the bouquet and started getting all panicky.

I gave it to Lynn but she refused the offer and gave me a hug for catching it. She was older than me and I insisted that she took it but she still declined the offer.

From the buffet table, my brother and Jacques saw that I caught the bouquet and Naz urged Jacques to 'fetch' me. Auntie Aisyah laughed in delight when she saw the bouquet in my hands.

She thought of warning me when she saw Jacques coming but decided to watch the 'show' instead. I was parting from Lynn's hug when someone lifted my up.

"Hey... what the...?" I turned my head and saw Jacques.

My faced glowed pink and asked to be let down but instead he kissed me in front of the whole crowd.

The newly weds just laughed with glee from the stage, Naz and Yuffie tried their best to hide their embarrassment, Elmyra clasped her hand around her mouth while she laughed softly, Barret smiled, Marlene jumped up and down, the other girls blushed red at the scene and Auntie Aisyah scrambled for a camera as she wanted to capture the moment (hopefully she won't show the photo to my parents).

Even though we weren't married he carried me like we were. There was a dance and the newly weds danced together and occasionally some lucky ones managed to exchange partners with the brides and grooms.

"Lucky, the person I exchanged my dance partner with was, Aerith." I thought sarcastically, that meant I had to dance with Cloud.

While dancing with him I whispered, "Well, she's all yours, now. Better take care of her as I may not be there next time to take a sword for her." He glanced behind us and smiled.

"You bet I will. Thank you so much. If it weren't for you, the only angel I had would be lost." I smiled childishly at him as a 'no problem' sign.

After the dance I stepped onto the stage and sang songs dedicated to the newly weds and the bride and grooms to be.

During some numbers Lynn and Serena joined in. Then, Naz and Barret stepped up and sang a few songs.

"Wow... I didn't think Barret would have such a good singing voice." Tifa exclaimed.

After the duo stepped down, Jacques said he'd only go up to sing a duet.

Yuffie pushed me to him and said, "Here's your girl, now get up there and put on a show."

And we did, the sound of our voices overwhelmed the crowd. Aerith gave me a hug and thanked us for the show. Not long after, we were shocked to have some unexpected guests.

Sephiroth and what seemed to look like Lucrecia had appeared from nowhere and asked to loin in the celebration. Thinking he was going to bring trouble, Cloud, Cid, Vincent and Reeve got ready their weapons.

"Wait, I have a better idea," I yelled from the stage.

I went up to them and looked in his eyes and saw no evil. I looked at his chest and in my mind I saw a bright red heart beating in his body. He's clean and pure. I looked at Lucrecia and saw that she was still young and vibrant.

"How could this be?" I wondered and welcomed them warmly.

"Well my dear, this is my mother and I'm pleased to meet you." He took my hand and shook it.

She walked up to Vincent and apologized for not listening to him before.

"Thank you all so much. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to touch my baby again." She said at last glancing at Sephiroth.

"It was a pleasure. We'd do anything to please a friend." Tifa smiled at her.

Vincent glanced at her and turned to his new wife. He was happy, after years of punishment and grief, he had found HIS happiness.

It wasn't in Lucrecia, but in Tifa. I was glad that everyone gleamed with happiness on this joyous occasion.

His grief and longing over Lucretsia seemed to have vanished like a midsummer night's dream and her being right in front of him had no effect at all.

Anyway, he was happy for her as she had been reunited with her most loved one, her baby, all grown up though, Sephiroth.

Cid and Shera were having the time of their lives and never thought they'd end up married. From afar, I could still see left over steam coming out of his tux.

"He resembles an old steam engine, if you ask me." I heard Naz say, as he guffawed at Cid.

Before the day was done, there were more dances. All found partners, even clumsy Rude. Serena pitied him and stayed with him the whole night. Finally, I was wondering when he'd have a smile on his face.

Naz and I were even surprised to know that Sam had eyes for my childhood friend, Siew Mei. She was the first friend I made when I started school.

We were speechless, but all that we could do was wish them 'all the best'. I didn't want to hog Jacques all to myself so I let a few other girls have a go with him.

He didn't seem to mind a bit. Should've known, he had an eye for women.

I shook my head in dismay. Naz and Yuffie walked towards me from the dance floor thinking that I was rejected.

"Maybe mom and dad were right, you deserve better than him." Naz proclaimed.

"Oh please...Don't start that issue again, will you? Anyway I let him go with the girls, besides there were many without partners anyway....I'm fine lil' bro. . . . Don't worry about me. You two have fun, I'll stay right here. I needed a break anyway." I smiled at them.

Actually, maybe they were right to worry, as my old habit of jealousy and sadness took over and tried my best to conceal it. From the far end of the dance floor, Rufus finally saw me alone and seized the chance to be with me while it was still open.

Lost in thought, I watched blindly at the dancers and didn't realize his hand till he spoke.

"Shall we dance?" he offered like the gentleman he was.

My face flushed in red at his gesture. Made sure I didn't fidget or tumble, I accepted. He was s great dancer indeed. We attracted quite a crowd, even the newly weds stopped to watch.

Barret and Jacques didn't really approve of me dancing with Rufus, but Naz, Auntie Aisyah, Cloud and surprisingly Sephiroth told them to let us be.

Quote from Disney's Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella musical play, "For a few precious, we're the only two people on the entire world." It seemed to be that way with us, though I could feel Jacques's jealousy slowly blowing a fuse, again.

What made conditions worse was Rufus kissed me. Didn't think it would hurt and went through with it. Rufus felt his heart do somersaults as he relished the moment. I parted the kiss and let go of his grasp.

Cloud and Sephiroth at that moment were trying to 'help' Jacques keep his cool before I returned.

Barret went up to me and asked why I danced with Rufus. I told him, "he asked and I just went along."

The answer was simple and easy to understand but Barret couldn't seem to stomach it. "It's alright, dad. I'm here now and not with him," I patted him on the back and he cooled down.

Sephiroth and Cloud urged me to come over to take care of Jacques. "Well I didn't think that you'd be jealous if I danced with someone other than yourself." I said to him as I sat beside him.

He moved away and asked why I kissed Rufus.

Sigh... is that all?

"It was for fun. It wasn't anything serious. Besides I don't love him like I do you." My words struck him like an electric shock.

He then realized that he loved me, too and pulled me into hug. Finally, he's at peace, that's a relief. Everyone stared and smiled.

Rufus understood immediately and realized that I was literally out of his reach. He went up to us and congratulated Jacques.

"What you have there is a real and true angel, so take care of her well." He held out his hand and Jacques took it.

They shook on it and parted separately. Jacques looked at him and a 'good riddance' look in his face.

"Don't think that way, if you look at him, you'll understand that he's lonely. You know what I mean." I glanced at him and then to Rufus.

He hadn't known that and felt a little guilty, but didn't show it.

The night wore on and little by little the area became less crowded. By midnight, the only guests left were Sephiroth, his mother and the Turks.

They were kind enough to lend a hand with the cleaning up. On the Highwind, the newly weds got ready for their honeymoons. Their honeymoons were at the Gold Saucer.

It was the only place they would have privacy and they could have fun at the same time. But the sad thing was it was time for us to leave. Cloud and the others allowed us to follow to drop them off.

On the Highwind, the call to send us home finally came.

"Girl... your mission was a success, congratulations. Now it's time I keep our part of the bargain... man. We'll send you home, but maybe you'll remember this happened and maybe you won't. Thank you so much for saving them. You won't be forgotten." Wakka congratulated us.

"No, Wakka, thank you. If it weren't for you or the others, I wouldn't have been able to meet them." I told him with tears filling my eyes.

"No problem, girl. If we ever come in a bind, we'll know who to call." He replied.

"You promise?" "I promise, besides, you're our biggest fan." He assured.

"Go get ready; we'll be waiting for your signal." Then he hung up.

I started to cry, but dried them before facing the others. "Sam, Jacques, Naz, Serena, Siew Mei, Auntie Aisyah, Wakka called and said it's time to go home." I announced to them.

The newly weds, Rufus, Red, Barret, Marlene, Sephiroth and Reeve/Cait Sith were shocked to hear that it was time to say 'good bye'.

Everyone knows that good bye is such sweet sorrow. Forgetting how old I was, I ran to the shelter of Aerith and Tifa's arms and cried. I didn't think that parting with them would be so hard.

"It seemed just like yesterday; you fell through the roof of my church and guided us as we saved the Planet. I'll miss you to kid." Aerith had tears streaming down her face as she stroked my hair.

"Thank you so much, dear, if it weren't for you, I would've drowned that day and wouldn't have 'found' Vincent." Tifa too, cried her eyes out with me still in her arms.

Barret shook Jacques hands and asked him to take care of his 'daughter' (he thought of me as his own daughter). Lynn and Serena hugged Yuffie and the Turks who followed us too.

Serena even gave Rude a souvenir to remember her by, "If we're fated to be together, that super enemy-all materia will glow brightly and I'll be waiting for you." She smiled at him and hugged him tightly

. Red howled once more and his crown became a frown. "I'll miss you, the most," I said as I hugged him tightly.

I was really going to miss the fuzzy red ball of fur. Cloud and the other grooms took turns shaking everyone's hands but gave me hugs.

Auntie Aisyah got a special hand shake from Barret for being the best weapon's expert he had ever seen. Marlene was crying like a baby as she didn't want me to go.

"Don't cry sweetie, I'm sure we'll see each other again, if fate is with us," I kissed her forehead as I carried her in my arms.

I'll miss her, too. Before we left, I made sure we took a few photos together for remembrance. Rufus came over to me and gave me a hug and for the first time in many years, he cried. All were surprised to see him do so. I wiped his tears and pulled him close.

His lips met mine for the last time. He didn't want to let go, but I had gently pushed him away.

"I won't forget you, but I'm sure you'll find another to replace me in your heart." I told him while I passed him the photo I carried with me ever since I arrived at that world.

He took it and held it close to his heart. I stroked his now gentle face with my right hand; he then took it and kissed it lightly before I went over to Jacques. Since Naz couldn't stand to part with Yuffie, he conjured up a special materia that enables just them to communicate even though they're from different dimensions.

We gathered at the deck and it was there we said our last goodbyes and I gave Wakka the signal. We waved to them as we floated upwards and finally vanished into thin air.

Even then I could still hear them saying goodbye and thank you. Wakka, Lulu, Sora, Kairi, Tidus, Yuna, Squall, Paine and Rikku lined us up before them to congratulate us and thanked us.

"Good job, guys. You were better than we thought. We want to thank you for helping them." Squall bowed before us.

"Please don't bow, we... I don't deserve it. It was a pleasure for me to be with them. We were more than pleased to help." I stopped him.

"We hope that when any problems turn up, you'll call." Naz added.

"Like Wakka said, we know who to call. Farewell, heroes, you won't be forgotten." Lulu waved her hand. In an instant, we were lost in darkness once more.

* * *


	25. The End?

Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy characters appearing in the story. All belong to Squaresoft/Square Enix.

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**Final Chapter: The End?**

Kringggggg... Kringggggg... my alarm clock rang not far from my bed.

"Yawn... Morning...already... Hardly had any sleep. " I said as I woke up.

"Eh? Why was he here?" I looked beside me and saw Jacques lying beside me.

I looked around my room. Serena, Siew Mei, Sam and Naz slept on mattresses on the floor. Jacques woke up after me and touched my face gently saying good morning. What was I missing here? Wait! Wakka sent us back and instead of sending us to our respected homes, he crowded everyone into my room, but why?

"What's wrong, Lisa, not happy to see me?" Jacques asked.

"Oh... it's not that, I was just wondering why all of you are here in my room with me." I replied (_a very unusual answer)._

He didn't seem to care if I said something weird and kissed me (he seems to like doing it, but what about his girlfriend?). Everyone woke up at once.

The mission we went on was still fresh in our minds, but was it real? They themselves don't get why they're all gathered in my room. Out of the blue, mom knocked on the door asking if 'we' were ok.

"Mom... how did you know there were others in my room?" I asked her.

She unlocked the door and said, "Silly girl, don't you remember, you wanted a sleep over with them and we allowed you to. Breakfast is ready, come down when you're ready."

Brr... This was really weird. Down below, all acted normal, even Auntie Aisyah was there. She had come all the way from Pulau Pinang to visit us and stayed in the guest room. I sat beside Jacques at the breakfast table. Serena sat on my other side, Naz sat beside Sam and Siew Mei sat opposite me.

"What time did you sleep guys? You look bushed." Dad asked as we ate breakfast.

"Well dad, we had a pillow fight till 1 a.m. so we're kinda tired." I replied him.

"Oh... don't forget to get ready by 11 as we're about to go to Sunway Lagoon. Better 'wake' up." He reminded us. Oh goody... Now I remember, we got together to go have fun at Sunway Lagoon.

The day was fun while it lasted; we made sure we went all the rides. Siew Mei and I went on the scary roller coasters together and ice skating after we dried off. I managed to take a lot of photos and promised to show them all when they were developed.

**(The next week)**

I had collected my film from the shop and was surprised to find photos of my favorite chocobos, Cloud and his party and the triple wedding! OH MY GOD! It was real after all. I called everyone over to the house and said it was urgent.

They rushed over as soon as they could. I showed the photos to them and they were as shocked as I was. Then it was true, we were missing for what seemed liked months but was a mere week.

No wonder we were closer than ever and explained the materia Naz had as he said he talked to Yuffie nearly every night. I remember now, the time we had in the Final Fantasy world, how we helped save the Planet with them and saved Aerith from death itself.

Jacques pulled me towards him but I pushed him away and asked, "What about your girlfriend? You told me you had one two months ago." "Oh...her... It didn't seem to work out between us and she chose another. I'm more available than you think." He explained and stroked my hair.

I was speechless and hugged him back. "It's official now, you're mine and I promise you, I'll take care of you better than Rufus might have done." He assured me. This is just too much and surprisingly, my parents finally accepted him.

Sam walked to me and said, "I suppose you already know that I have eyes for your childhood friend," he brought Siew Mei forward.

"Siew Mei, jie-jie (means big sister, in Chinese), you and him. I can't believe it." I let go of Jacques and hugged her as a sign that I was with them all the way. It was a happy day for me, but Naz and Serena weren't feeling so great. Yuffie and Rude weren't here and they were quite lonely.

**(Two weeks later)**

"Hey, Naz, early as usual, forget to do your homework?" a classmate teases him.

"No... As class monitor, it's my duty to come early and make sure the class is in order." He replied confidently.

"Hope you won't cause havoc." The guy continued.

"Keep that up; you'll be having a date with my fist tonight, something even worse than getting the Rotan," he threatened.

"Ok, ok, hold your horses, _chee_...I didn't mean any harm. Did you know we have a new student coming today?" he asked.

"Yeah, I heard al right, he or she is coming from an outside country, but the teachers didn't say from where." Naz scratched his head.

"I hope the student is a girl, girls from other countries are prettier than the ones from here." He dreamed.

"Oh... is that what you think? So you won't mind if I tell what you just said to your girlfriend. What will she say, I wonder?" Naz had a sinister grin on his face. The boy pleaded him not to.

**(20 minutes later)**

"Good morning, Sir." All the students said at once.

"Good morning class, please be seated now." The teacher said, "I'm pleased to say that we have a new student from Osaka, and here she is now. Come in dear." He held out his hand as a signal for her to come in.

As she walked in, everyone stared at her beauty while Naz stared in surprise, "She looks familiar, could it be her?"

"Hello, my name's Yuffie Kisaragi, I had just transferred from Osaka. I hope we'll be great friends." She said as she bowed following her local custom.

"Yuffie...? How did she end up here?" Naz wondered in amazement with his mouth still open.

No doubt about it, it was her only with longer hair. Instead of really short hair, her hair was straighter and was until her shoulders. She sat beside Naz.

All gathered around her and introduced themselves. Yuffie wasn't really interested in talking with the boys, but became really close to all the girls. She noticed Naz sitting all alone deep in thought and went up to him.

She surprised him when she whispered... "Long time no see, Grey Fox or more accurately, Naz." She smiled at him.

"It's really you, but how?" Naz was surprised and glad at once.

"Long story, will tell later." She hugged him and he hugged back.

This made the other boys jealous and the girls blushed. Naz explained that he and Yuffie were friends from way back. At least they believed that. It was double shock for me when I found out that Godo was my ninjuitsu master.

"Godo, how did you get here?" he said the same thing Yuffie did.

When Naz and I got home from school and practice, we were triple-surprised when we saw that we had new neighbors who turned out to be them. Rude was with them too, but came as Yuffie's older brother by a year (he became younger) and his name was Tendo Kisaragi. It was hard to believe it was them.

Maybe an angel from above took pity on the young lovers and brought them to our world. It was amazing what love could do. Now for sure everyone was happy. Mom and dad never suspected that we knew them already.

Godo was a highly respected man even though he had recently come to our world. He was like a Dato' in our country and a well respected martial arts master. Though he couldn't use his beast form here, he managed to live without it. Tendo was thrilled to be reunited with Serena and the two were great friends.

Many surprises took place this month and the very best one was yet to come. Someone came and deliver some 'special' cargo. I signed the papers and opened the package. Inside were chocobos the size of my hand!

"Hey Bro, check it out, our chocobos," I gleamed as I stroked one on the head.

" Whoa, Kak Lisa, they're so tiny," he chuckled as he picked one up gently and placed one on the table.

As he pampered the adorable little thing, I exmained the other contents of the package.

With it came special stables for them to live in. It had unlimited greens, unlimited space and everything they would need. There was Storm the normal but best chocobo, Shane the black chocobo and Gwen the gold chocobo.

Sam took care of Gwen, Naz and Yuffie took care of Shane and I took care of Storm with Jacques who decided to stay with us till his results were announced.

Things couldn't be happier amongst us and all of us were closer than ever and got even closer every time we looked back on the time in the Final Fantasy world.

I looked the sky and thanked all who helped us make all this possible. We swore among us to keep the story of the mission a secret that must never be told to anyone. Not that they would believe us anyway, but just to make sure we don't give ideas to others.

Auntie Aisyah took the oaf too and promised to take this secret to the grave. May this story only be a story to be told to our children as a fairy tale and never reveal that the mission actually took place? Though it may be only a story to others, we still wait for the day they will call once more.

It was a great adventure to live and it changed us slightly. We were more confident to take risks and the list goes on. We would wish hard for another chance to go back, but like Wakka said, he'll call when we're needed. It may take days, months and maybe years, but we're in no hurry, we can wait.

"Eh, kak Lisa, aren't you gonna finish playing that Final Fantasy VII game?" Naz asked one day when he and Yuffie saw me finishing the last stages in Kingdom Hearts.

"Ah... I thought we finished it already. You said so yourself I should finish what I started. I'm finishing this game before I start any other game." I answered with a grin growing on my face.

He got what I meant. Technically we did finish the game, inside the game itself.

"I rest my case. I was wondering whether you and Jacques would like to join us for a walk in the park at KLCC." He asked.

"Hmm, what do you think, Jacques?" I asked at the person sitting behind me on the bed (I was on the floor) whose head was on my shoulder.

"Why not, let's go." He got up.

"Oh... we'll be meeting Sam, Siew Mei, Serena, Tendo and Auntie Aisyah there too. You don't mind, right?" Yuffie asked.

"No problem was thinking of inviting them, anyway." I stuck out my tongue cheekily.

"You shouldn't be acting like a kid anymore Lisa. You're nearly 19; you should act your age." Jacques squeezed my shoulder.

"OH... and who are you to tell me what to do, huh?" I pushed him away and crossed my arms.

"Your boyfriend..." he twirled my around, swept me off my feet and kissed me.

Not wanting us to have all the fun, Naz kissed Yuffie. At the park, we met them all at the bridge. We greeted them in a friendly fashion.

"So, what do you wanna do?" I asked them. "We should be asking you. You are or were our leader and heroine." Serena replied.

"Nah, I'll let you do what you want this time. Anyway, it was Naz who invited us out so we should ask him." I pointed to Naz and Yuffie.

"Who me, uhh... why don't we just relax around here or check out the Petrosains place. I heard there was a theme picture taking place. It's a bit like taking photo stickers but it's more like taking one large photo.

We'll all pitch in to take a photo and later I'll scan and print out copies for all of us. But, kak, you'll keep the original for being the best leader ever." He patted my back so hard I nearly fell forward.

"What do you think gang, up for it?" I asked everyone.

Some gave thumbs up and other cried out 'Yeah' or 'sure'. At the shop, we chose a background which was of a sunrise to symbolize happiness and a new day. We got into our posses and when it was done we paid the fee.

The man who took it gave us three extra copies for being the 200th customers that week as it was part of a promotion. We were lucky. Suddenly, Yuffie pulled me over and went all hyper.

"Kakak Lisa (she also calls me Kakak), look at the photos!" We looked at them and couldn't believe our eyes.

There were us in our posses, but in our other forms. We smiled and behind and with us were Cloud, Aerith, Barrett, Tifa, Red XIII, Cait Sith or Reeve, Sephiroth, Cid, Shera, Vincent, Lucrecia, Rufus, Wakka, Squall, Yuna, Tidus, Lulu, Paine, Sora, Kairi and Rikku.

A tear trickled from my eye and said "They're with us always and will be watching over us wherever they are."

The others felt the same way. We miss them so much, and one day we will meet again. I have a feeling that, that day will come sooner than we think. The photo proves as a sign that our adventure wasn't over, yet.

On the photo I held, Cloud, Vincent, Cid, their lovely wives and our other friends smiled and they too, will wait for the day we are reunited once more.

**_The End (Or Is It?)_**

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Hope you've enjoyed the story. I'm sorry if it was messy before, but I hope it turns out better now. This is my first story so I don't really expect it to be that good as I'm not good and using words.

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Ok… now that's done and over with… now I have gulps how many more pages left to go  . (15/8/06) This however will be my last edit to this story as this was after all my first ever fanfic.


	26. Profiles of 'outside characters'

**Created Characters  
**  
**Name**: Farah Marissa

**Battle Name**: Enima

**Age**: 18

**Height**: 5'2''

**Birthplace**: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

**Birth date**: December 14th

**Job**: Student / Archer

**Weapon**: Bow and Arrows / dress spheres (Provided by Paine)

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**Name**: Jacques Rerolle

**Battle Name**: Speed

**Age**: 19

**Height**: 5' 5''

**Birthplace**: Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

**Birth date**: January 18th

**Job**: College Student / Swordsman

**Weapon**: Sword and whip

----------------------------------------------------

**Name**: Khairul Nazrin (Naz)

**Battle Name**: Grey Fox

**Age**: 16

**Height**: 5' 4''

**Birthplace**: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

**Birth date**: December 5th

**Job**: Student / Hunter

**Weapon**: Swords, Sickles, Spears etc...

----------------------------------------------------

**Name**: Chin Siew Mei

**Battle Name**: Lynn

**Age**: 19

**Height**: 5'3''

**Birthplace**: Selangor, Malaysia

**Birth date**: Unknown

**Job**: Student/ Mage

**Weapon**: Staves, Magic

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**Name**: Siti Aishah bin Hamdan

**Battle Name**: Falcon

**Age**: 43

**Height**: 5'5''

**Birthplace**: Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

**Birth date**: Unknown

**Job**: Human Resources/ Huntress/ Dancer

**Weapons**: Crossbows and daggers

--------------------------------------------------

**Name**: Sammer Talib

**Battle Name**: Seraph (newly edited)

**Age**: 24

**Height**: 5'7''

**Birthplace**: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

**Birth date**: 4th January

**Job**: Unknown/ Rogue

**Weapons**: Katars, knives, daggers etc...

-----------------------------------------------------

**Name**: Serena BT Azizuddin

**Battle Name**: Celest

**Age**: 14

**Height**: 4'9''

**Birthplace**: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

**Birth date**: Unknown

**Job**: Primary student / knight

**Weapons**: Spears, swords, knives, daggers etc...

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Disclaimer: All characters (and the storyline) belong to Squaresoft / Square Enix; they are the best and will always be.  
Only the characters stated above and some scenes were created by me.  
Some scenes and parts of the story really happened in real life (well my life anyway).


End file.
